RWBY Journey: Forty Days
by Craxuan
Summary: After the Jiu Xu Disaster, Yang Xiao Long decides to accompany Ruby Rose and realize the dream of a grand adventure that she will never forget. However, reality seldom meets fantasy, and she will be faced with complications and hardships completely different from what she expected. This is the interlude of Ruby and Yang's forty days of adventure after RWBY Journey: Fire & Gold.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note: As the synopsis says, this is a story about the forty days Ruby and Yang traveled together (well obviously I'm not going to write down every single day; that'll take forever!) after they departed from Jiu Xu and before they arrived at Bamborsa. There may be snippets of the current time such as this chapter functioning as interludes before the next main Arc arrives, and while I haven't written that far yet (Hell, I've only completed 2 chapters so far if you discount this prologue!), who knows -**

**Maybe you'll get to see a beloved character show up?**

**One last thing. I will be updating this story weekly instead of my usual style (daily revise + update) due to several reasons: One, it's a holiday. I finally got a holiday after 5 months straight working in foreign land (the only leave I ever took was sick leave, so, yeah). Two, I haven't finished writing this yet, so it's somewhat unrealistic to expect a daily update that doesn't suck. I'm not that good.**

**And that's all. As usual, enjoy the read and stay sharp!**

* * *

**Day XX:**

Hello everyone, this is Yang Xiao Long speaking! Do you miss me?

So, yeah. I bet you didn't see this coming, my eternal nemesis (notebook). I didn't either. Never have I thought that I will pick up a pen again and write voluntarily, especially considering how you and thousands of your other brethren nearly drove me to suicide back at Jiu Xu, you sneaky little monster. Then again, I guess this is what adventuring does to every men and women, and in strange ways that not even the most precognitive could expect.

Regardless, filling my first diary entry with useless babbles an boring introductions really isn't my style, so I'll stop the complaints and jump straight into the meat.

So, about today! If I am to be entirely honest then… nothing much happened at all, really. As usual, our feisty little kitty is trying to off Ruby's life - hmm, looks like she's trying to snap her neck again, and considering that this is the tenth time she was forced into the same tactic I'm skeptical at her chances of success, but you go girl! - but this is pretty much routine by now and nothing out of the ordinary.

We are now halfway into the Dead Zone between Atlas and Shiva, trekking towards the north as usual but making slower progress than expected because of the high concentration of Grimm in this area. They are annoying to say the least despite being of 'a weaker breed' – which is by the way Ruby's favorite phrase to use and rile the hell out of Blake before they try to kill each other 'by accident'. Again. I suppose I'm happy that Ruby's actively trying to expand her vocabulary despite absolutely impure intentions, but seriously, why can't they just get along?

Back to the news. Just two days ago we encountered a few Atlas border patrols, and while I usually _love _the extra human company, for the first time ever all three of us unanimously agreed that these pesky little pricks are a serious threat to our group, and that we should avoid them as much as possible. Like sure, I was actually going to be the only dissenting vote and did try to be friendly with those guys, but then that one creepy motherfucking _son of a bitch_ tried to grope my butt and touch _my hair_. _My hair. _Needless to say I cooked the creepy bastard real good and left him smoking on top of some random branch. He totally deserved it; justice is done! Like who cares about a bounty or two on my head when my sister's already being chased by the most dangerous organization in Remnant? Right? Right?

Ah, damn, why am I writing the highlight of the day from two days ago? Oh my, that rhymes, maybe I can make a pun somewhere out of this… time? Pine? Lime? Whatever. I suppose there _is _nothing else I can write for the day. Or night if you will, with the moon hanging high in the sky and crickets buzzing so loud I can't bloody. Sleep. DAMMIT!

This is a problem. I will talk to Ruby, but her nerves are stretched so thin by Blake that I doubt she will appreciate the disturbance. As for Blake… nope. That was totally expected though, like really, the day she makes idle chat is the day I write a dia… ry… aw. No luck predicting the future like a certain death note, I suppose. Not that I want to predict anyone's death, you know, _but_. Yep.

_Haaah,_ what am I going to do? Can't sleep, can't train, not even a dog to chat with unless I'm willing to talk to myself. Sure, I have two travelling companions who talk less than a statue, but I am not so desperate as to cross that line! Still, what to do, what to do… Wait. I have an idea. What if I write down all our adventures starting since day one, the day after Ruby and I left Jiu Xu until now? That doesn't sound bad at all. It will be quiet, and I will be spending all that brainpower until all that's left is sleep. Maybe I'll even figure out finally what day count to put into the title!

Alright then! Let's do it!


	2. Chapter 1 - The Dream

**Author's Note: And so we begin. I would've replied to you all personally, but I was off the grid for quite a few days and my phone isn't really the best medium to type, so the gratitude will have to happen here. Thank you for reviewing, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

**Day 1:**

_Huang Lau Shan, _or literally 'Yellow Old Hill' in English, is one of the harsh, natural barriers surrounding the city of Jiu Xu. It was a jutting peak of 1,032 meters that's bare of almost any vegetation, and its dull, yellowish brown soil more than made up its namesake. At first glance it seemed pitifully small and insignificant as compared to the other taller, harsher-looking mountains that littered all around Jiu Xu, but only a stranger to this land would make such a misconception.

To start with, the hill was treacherously slippery. It happened to be at a sweet spot where rain battered constantly at its surface throughout the year, and as such the soil was so loose that even a misplaced footstep might threaten a landslide. The hill was shaped in the image of a long, sharp needle riddled with countless tiny ridges, and the last time someone tried to build a secure route across the hill, the entire structure plus a sizable chunk of the hill itself flooded half the forest at its base. Even animal trails; safe paths that could be tread with a bit more security were scarce because there wasn't much food to be found along its barren slopes. The only saving grace was that it was too treacherous for even land bound Grimm to cross, but in all honesty _Huang Lau Shan_ should've been unearthed since a long time ago.

Yet once upon a time, this accursed hill was the site of a great war. Long, long ago, during a time before Dust, there was a gigantic steel fortress built atop an even greater mountain, until a terrible evil came and obliterated it so thoroughly that only this thin, pitiful slab was all that's left. Only a handful of people knew about this forgotten history now, and it was through their efforts that the ancient site was preserved to this date.

"Is this one of Master Ju Long's discovery forty years ago, when Rose of Summer came across the city?"

"That's what he told me at least – _Huff! _– Da's a chronic liar, but he almost never lies about his old adventures – _Puff!_"

"Okay. But why are you telling me this story now? Do you mean to scavenge this place? I doubt we can find anything after such a long time, if we even know what it is or how to use it."

Yang stared at the red cloaked girl like she was crazy, even as she heaved herself up a big boulder before slumping flat on its rough surface, "Ruby, we're standing atop one of Remnant's greatest site of war. There's a giant steel fortress, and then a Grimm so powerful that it obliterated the mountainitself! Aren't you _excited? _Who knows, maybe there's even a vengeful spirit – a _mechanical_ vengeful spirit, since this was a _steel _fortress! – stalking this accursed hill, hoping to drag the next foolish soul into the endless abyss. Wait, what is that behind you!? _Uwaaaahhhhh!"_

"Not funny," Ruby Rose frowned even as she swung 180 degrees with a hand on her gun-scythe just in case, "Yang. I'm fine with your jokes, but please don't make one concerning the dangers of the road. It will be dangerous if I mistake your cries of help as one."

"Agh! You, you don't have to be so straightforward about that…" Yang deflated like a balloon as Ruby laughed apologetically at the tiny jab. It had been just a day since they left the city, and thanks to the blonde's familiarity with this particular land they managed to reach the base of the hill relatively quickly. After that, they spent an hour climbing up about one third up the slopes, with plans to skirt through the middle ridge so as to avoid the faster, but far more dangerous flat lands in between the mountains. No one could explain why, but there had been countless incidents where unknowing travelers had been buried alive by landslides just as they were about to cross the narrow path. Better safe than sorry.

As for their destination? Northwest was where they're moving at, and Yang vaguely guessed that was 'the Altar' was the checkpoint of their adventure. Until something significant popped up during their journey, Yang had zero qualms about that.

"Yang."

"Yes love?"

"I've taught you almost everything you need to know about survival. Forage, shelter, navigation and more. Let's test you. When is your watch? For how long?"

"I'm not sure verbally reciting over ten thousand words per hour counts as 'teaching', but… five hours of sleep between ten to three, and a short thirty minutes nap during lunchtime, right?"

Ruby nodded, "That's correct. What about during emergencies? Let's say, separation without a tail. What do you do?"

"Oh. Oh _that_ part. Actually, well, I'm still digesting so…"

"Yang, I'm not joking. This is _very _important," Ruby sighed before continuing, "Never mind that. Let's have you thoroughly memorize the basics again, okay? For a beginner, there are three things that you must never forget: Water, sleep, and goal. Are you near a water source? It is literally the most important thing when you're travelling outdoors. Get to the lowest possible ground and use your ears to pinpoint a rushing sound. If you're close, you won't miss it.

Next will be sleep. It's good that you have a camp, so there's no need to worry about building shelters yet. Me? I always sleep on a tree branch if I can ("Are you a monkey?") because it's safer and convenient. Speaking of which, you do _not _want to sleep too near a river in this case, because there are predators who frequent them during the night, not to mention those living inside the river. Always have a fire. They will keep most things away, and although the Grimm may still attack you won't be utterly defenseless in the dark.

Finally, direction. This is common sense, but you should know where you're going. You're not a celebrity explorer who drops in the middle of nowhere trying to make money out of the foolish and ignorant. Not to mention that nowadays, the need to travel by foot grows ever so smaller. Are you sure you don't want to fly to Atlas first and find me in a month or so, Yang?"

"Huh? Of course not! That will beat the whole purpose of _adventuring _itself, and I want to travel with _you_, not…" The blonde waved her hand about listlessly, "… _to _you, you know, if you get what I mean."

"I see," Ruby gave Yang a weird smile then before pressing her palms together, "Sure. But I must warn you again: the journey will not be easy, and I will be moving very _fast. _Efficiency is… _critical_. Are you okay with it?"

Yang laughed aloud and answered without thinking, "Is that a challenge I hear? Of course it is! This is my _dream coming true_, Ruby, it'll take more than just muscle aches or endless marches to hold me back!"

There was a gleam in Ruby's eyes, but the young girl turned away before Yang could make anything out of it, "That's great. Okay. We'll make haste for Atlas' borders in twenty days, and decide our next course there. Just in case, I believe we can catch a caravan or two for trade, so we won't be making stops at any town. Any questions?"

"None! Two hundred miles is just cake, sis! Oh, I can't wait to see Atlas already! Let's make it in fifteen! The greatest kingdom of science and warfare, here I come!"

"It's nice to see you excited, but we have to be realistic. Still," Ruby said wistfully, "Fifteen days, huh? I'll see what I can do."

* * *

_And that was our first day. To be honest, everything was pretty much normal until that point. We climbed a hill, we talked about a ton of stuff, and past _Huang Lau Shan _I'm already seeing things I've never known in my life. Hell, a few hours down the road we even get to beat up a few Grimm and feel good about it. It was exactly how I imagined an adventure to be, and damn, at that time I was high enough to forgive someone for hurting my precious hair. Probably. Maybe just a punch to the groin, but really, everything was just – _so – cool!

_But thinking back though, that was exactly why I missed all the silent hints; cues of the days to come. If only I wasn't so foolish, then maybe I wouldn't have been hurt so badly on that day. Of course, I didn't know her nearly enough at the time – and I still don't, even if we are closer now – but really, I wished I had learned about _it_ earlier. Even better, I wished she would just tell me._

_But of course she wouldn't._


	3. Chapter 2 - The Mine

**Author's Notes: Day 3 and 4 in one chapter. Suddenly I feel worried. At least 4 more sections to go after my latest update... I might have to write during weekends even though I'm totally uninspired on those days. Darn.**

* * *

**Day 3:**

"Holy cow, is that a _bird? _It's like a rainbow and looks so _cute!_ Oh wait, I know this! This is a parrot, isn't it?"

"That is literally the biggest, most colorful and dangerous-looking spider Grimm I've ever seen in my life. Do you think you can keep it still while I take a selfie?"

"Giant four hundred meters tall waterfall. Holy Wally. Must bath inside. Ohmababygawd. _Waterfall!_"

"Aaagh! It's a Deathstalker! _AAAAAGH! WHY DID YOU CLEAVE IT IN HALF BEFORE I CAN TAKE A PICTURE?"_

Yang was super high. It had been three days since they've truly left Jiu Xu far at their backs, and her ridiculous euphoria had lasted about just as long. Mere mortals would have dialed back the constant squeals of delight, or at the very least learned to mask them with something like a cough or a fart or both. Yang Xiao Long simply squealed longer until even the birds fluttered away into the sky to escape the relentless aural torture.

"Hey Ruby! Look at this piece of shiny rock, it's – no wait, is this… Dust? By Remnant, are we entering a _mine?_"

Dust. By definition it is a naturally occurring energy propellant that can be triggered by aura, but in reality much of its structure or composition remained a mystery to mankind. To this day no one could even explain the most fundamental question of how Dust came to be, but we do know where and how to find them.

The most common forms of Dust were mostly discovered beneath the ground, and they were usually excavated from quarries or open-pit mines. The deeper one dug, the better the quality of Dust that could be found, and the more potent the energy they contain that could be used for many different purposes. Even a fist-sized, grade B Fire Dust contained enough energy to potentially blow off an entire cliff. Because Dust was so important and people with the expertise to manage them so valuable, the health and safety of workers in this field – especially the miners – were given the highest priority even back in the days when poverty and war plagued the lands.

Nowadays only the dubious, the powerful, or both would employ more questionable methods such as cheap, disposable labor to maximize productivity, and ironically the current top Dust mining producer was one such corporation – the Schnee Dust Company, the largest Dust producer and manufacturer of the North. Some shallow people thought that it was only natural they were at the top since it was given full support by the government, but the truth was the exact opposite. Without the Schnee Dust Company, the Shiva Kingdom would not have been able to maintain its neutrality and be absorbed into Atlas since a long time ago. After all Dust is power, and wielding the world's best Dust technology coupled with ownership over many Dust reservoirs in Remnant, no one dared to challenge Shiva knowing that a fearsome retaliation would always be around the corner.

However it was rumored lately that the corporation and even the Kingdom itself was considering a… _change, _and unbeknownst to the public a certain queen was waging her own personal war against the enemies that would threaten everything she believed in and upheld since her reign. But that is a story for another time, and as Ruby wiped away at a dusty nailed board near the entrance wall to reveal a queer snowflake symbol, she nodded to herself and said,

"Yes. This is an abandoned mine that will lead approximately twenty kilometers ahead, before emerging just beyond the Snake Jungle."

Yang grinned and pumped her fist excitingly into the air, "Really? Oh yes! I'm feeling a bit averse to undergrounds after last time, but this is it! This is my_ first ever dungeon crawling adventure WOOHOO!_"

Ruby cocked her head at the strange outburst as if she never heard of the term before, but the emotion quickly passed by as she said curtly, "We will be here for two days, possibly five if the usual paths are blocked. Do not shout. Use flashlights only, and do_ not _light a fire no matter what. It's time."

"Oh, I know! It's because of the residue of pure dust and potential combustible gas formations – hey! Wait for me!"

Yang rushed up towards the walking Ruby, and tried to put a hand onto the young girl's shoulder. To her surprise though, her palm hit only air as Ruby deftly slipped out of the way without even looking back. She tried one more time only to face the same results, and it soon turned into a bizarre game of tag where Yang literally threw herself at Ruby hoping to get in even a single touch. But no matter how many times she tried she could not even reach the edge of her cloak, and soon the blonde huffed and puffed before holding one hand over her elbow and complained,

"C'mon sis, why are you dodging? I just want to hold you a little!"

There was only silence. Ruby said nothing as she held a beam of light before trudging into the darkness as if she hadn't heard at all. It was only then it occurred to Yang, even as the haze of excitement inside her head finally dimmed a bit, that until just now they hadn't talked to each other at all since two days ago.

… Nah. It's just her imagination.

* * *

**Day 4:**

A pair of footsteps, one steady and the other somewhat lethargic resounded throughout circular tunnels as loud as a thunderclap. Amidst the absolute darkness a single beam of light cut through like hot knife through butter, and a pair of travelers walked through blackened hallways at least fifty meters underground.

Yang flipped open her scroll wearily and checked the time. According to her scroll, it had only been fifteen hours since they stepped into this heart of darkness, but she felt as if she had been trapped here for almost a whole month. Her initial enthusiasm had long since disappeared. No matter where she looked it was rock and earth, Dust and even more dust, and a permanent blanket of shadow weighing down on her soul as heavily as the wet, stuffy air did to her lungs.

Worse, most of the tunnels were small and narrow; not enough even for her to stand at her full height. The mine railway tunnels were the only exception to the rule, and although she tried talking Ruby into hopping in for an easy ride, the young girl didn't even answer as she breezed past the minecarts without so much a look. Most likely the wrong way out then. Therefore Yang had no choice but to squeeze along with the young girl through a series of interconnected tunnels and suspicious-looking holes so god damn tight she suspected were natural cracks caused by earthquakes or whatever.

"Hey sis… How much further do we have to go?"

A parting glance, the barest shake of the head. That was all the reaction she got from Ruby. Yang hummed absentmindedly and fell right back into silence. She wasn't feeling all that chatty herself, especially since voices tended to echo with unnatural loudness until they faded away into the distance. Perhaps the tunnels were intentionally designed like this so the miners could communicate with each other easily, but all it did for Yang was to amplify the irrational fear of _something _hidden further down the road, waiting beyond the curtain darkness.

_Katakk… krahh._

"– What was that!?" The blonde nearly jumped when she heard a strange noise from a gap to her left. Her muscles were taut, and her breathing had quickened to an unnatural pace. _It's just a falling stone, _she told herself, _stop being a scaredy cat and get a hold of yourself! _

But she could not. When did her hands start shaking? She didn't even realize it was so _cold._ Yang never thought herself to be a claustrophobic, but when the world swayed and the walls seemed to shrink ever so closer as if to crush her, the blonde could literally feel the panic rising up to her throat.

Yang didn't understand it at the time, but she was actually experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for the very first time in her life. The war at Jiu Xu had affected her deeper than she thought, and being stuck inside a cave not too dissimilar from the site before was enough to trigger the symptoms. Suddenly her vision became filled with light, and Yang knew without looking that Ruby had turned around to check out what was going on. She felt both dizzy and pathetic. With difficulty, the blonde spoke,

"I'm… sorry. I don't know what… came over me. Give me a… minute. I'll recover."

And she did, eventually. After one, two, five, thirty minutes of deep breathing and intense self-criticism, Yang eventually felt like herself again and finally climbed back to her own feet. She apologized solemnly for wasting both their time, and swore with carefully hidden doubt that it wouldn't happen a second time. Before long, the duo was back on the move.

Throughout the ordeal, Ruby said nothing and did nothing at all. She just watched.

* * *

"W – Agh!?"

It came without warning. Three hours had passed since the strange bout of weakness, and while Ruby betrayed nothing Yang was obviously still mulling over the matter and afraid of a second spell. But suddenly a pouch of water splashed down right on top of Yang's head, and all those thoughts instantly disappeared as the blonde jumped and nearly bumped her head against the low ceiling. In a daze, the drenched blonde ran a hand through her hair and muttered, "Holy _shit_, just what the hell is…? Rub – _Whoooaaaaaaaaaa?!_"

They were running. All the sudden, Yang felt herself gripped tightly on the wrist before being yanked forwards by an incredible strength. At first she had tried to resist, but the moment she saw Ruby's silver eyes staring back with terrible agitation she quickened her footsteps until they were almost flying past the corridors. Even then the young woman still did not understand their sudden, almost frantic escape – _why are we running? What's going on? We're going so fast I'm almost certain that we'll run into – GAH! That was way too close! We need to slow –_

Yang's thoughts were cut short when a deafening explosion exactly where they were at before, followed by the unmistakable roar of rushing water that drained away all the blood on her face. That was enough motivation she needed to run faster than she ever did in her entire life. But no matter how fast they ran, the deafening rumbles only grew louder and louder until Yang was sure as death that the killing water was right behind them.

She wasn't wrong. Within seconds the tidal wave was lapping right against her feet, and before she knew it an impossible weight slammed into her back and fell her like a sack of rocks. It was upon her. She breathed in, trying to catch a gulp of air for yet a new burst of strength. She really shouldn't. The water gushed mercilessly into her lungs even as she realized the terrible mistake, and then she was drowning amidst a tide so black she couldn't even see. Yang flailed wildly trying to fight against the unstoppable current, but it was meaningless. She couldn't even _see_. _Am I dying? Am I going to die? I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm DEAD –_

Suddenly she felt a sharp crack at the back of her neck, and her consciousness faded away into nothingness.

* * *

When she woke up it was cold.

Yang never minded the cold, nor did she dislike rainy days just because she had a 'sunny' attitude. It was simply the delusion of a stranger who knew nothing about her. There were days when the temperature in Jiu Xu could reach an obscene scale of 44 degrees Celsius, and on a cloudless day it was hot enough to cause someone a stroke. So not only Yang don't mind the cold at all, sometimes she loved it so much it'd take a Goliath to pull her away from air-cons, ice cream and shades.

But now it was different. The first sensation she awoke to was of a dirty, cold floor pressing against her cheek. Bright light poked offensively at her eyes. The blonde coughed and gagged as she felt icy tendrils biting deep into every corner of her body, and once the shiver began it simply could not stop. At least her senses were too numb to feel much of anything, but Yang wasn't sure at all if that's a good sign. Even her hair was damp; she couldn't remember the last time she went to bed without drying her hair. What happened? Why was she sleeping on the floor? Wasn't she travelling –

_Oh. _Oh.

Abruptly, Yang pushed herself up from the ground – nerves and bones cracking painfully at the sudden movement – and gasped in a big, big gulp of air. Stale, humid, metallic, but definitely _air. Oh my god I'm alive. I'm alive. But how? It must be _–

She swung her head to the left, and saw a pair of silver eyes staring right back at her. Yang could hardly describe her joy and relief to see the young girl huddled at one corner of the room while covering herself completely with her cloak. The blonde said breathlessly with gratitude,

"You saved me. Thank you. But, but _how? _I thought I was down and – The flood was totally over me –"

Unexpectedly, the young girl raised a pale, white arm through the folds of her cloak and pointed directly at her center. Slightly unnerved by the indecipherable reaction, Yang followed the finger's aim and looked down towards herself. At first, she didn't find anything out of the ordinary. Well, maybe with exception to the fact that she wasn't wearing her jacket. Or her singlet. Or her gauntlets. Or even her pants actually. Hmm? Speaking of that breeze brushing against her butt –

"–_EEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKK!?"_

For the next few hours, bold and hot and fearless Yang Xiao Long obediently wrapped herself within a blanket and stewed as red as a tomato.

* * *

"So… uh, close call, right?"

By the time Yang finally spoke again – this time fully clothed in her reserves although she still had a blanket wrapped around her, and thank heavens that her bags were water resistant – it was already dawn. Or at least that was what her scroll indicated at the top right corner of the screen. Daylight didn't hold much meaning in this lightless place.

"Where was I before… right. It was your Semblance, right? It was the only way we could've gotten out of that alive."

They were now resting inside what seemed to be a particularly large room that was not a room. It was a crossroad of sorts, the intersection point of at least eight visible paths. But perhaps it was used more as a gathering hall of sorts, because there were obvious signs of human life such as footprints and empty liquor bottles. Yang gingerly poked one with a foot before walking away in search for more interesting forms of distraction,

"I can't imagine how you managed to drag me up from the floor though, especially since I was knocked out… Hmm? That's weird. How did I fall on my neck when I was already down…? Oh, whatever."

That got a reaction from Ruby, and the stoic girl had looked up briefly towards the blonde. But the moment Yang turned over she had closed her eyes again and turned over as if trying to catch some sleep. In the dark illuminated only by a powered down flashlight, Yang had missed the temporary gaze. The blonde scratched her head wryly before continuing,

"I must've been heavy, eh? Not to mention the bags; I was _so stupid_ not to drop them off first thing when everything went crazy. How can they even build a tunnel under that underground river or whatever in the first place? My god!"

Ruby Rose rustled a little in her blanket, and Yang nodded seemingly taking it as some kind of response. Slowly, the blonde walked a circle around their refuge, inspecting each and every one of the tunnels in deliberation. Her breathing hitched just a little as she traced the wet soil and stone with her fingers, the reverberations of the flood still tingling atop her skin. She shook off the memory quickly,

"Er, so, sis! How close are we to the exit? Are we still on track? I hope we haven't strayed off path too much. Sis? Hello? Are you listening?"

This time, the sleeping figure was completely silent, and Yan quickly gave up knowing that Ruby was probably awake throughout the entire ordeal looking after her. She must be tired beyond speech. The only thing Yang could do right now was to watch over her – _this makes it twice, now. I can't owe her forever – _but she was going to make damn sure that Ruby gets as much rest as she could get before they restart their journey.

That being said –

"Hey Rubes, I know you said not to light a fire," Yang mumbled quietly while scooting ever so slightly towards the girl, "but it's _really _cold down here, and this blanket really isn't enough so… do you think I can just… stick to your back a little? You know, to keep warm…"

The blonde watched Ruby closely until she was right beside her. Then, slowly, deliberately, she turned around and pushed herself backwards until finally, their backs touched. Ruby did not move away. Suddenly Yang felt an uncontrollable urge to laugh, and she managed to hold it back after a titanic effort. But still she could not hold back the tears trickling down her cheeks. _This warmth…_

It was almost familiar.

* * *

_Despite that rather exciting incident, we got out of that damnable hellhole six hours later without further trouble. If I had any doubts about Ruby's navigational skills before, all that was gone the moment we saw daylight. More importantly, it was at that point I swore to myself that I would do anything to repay my debt to Ruby. I trusted her completely as one of the best friends I could ever have, and I believed that she thought the same of me too._

_Well, it just goes to show how little I understand about her, or even myself._


	4. Chapter 3 - Arrogance

**Author's Notes: Spot the reference.**

* * *

**Day 5:**

It was a good day. The sky's sunny, the grasses were green, and Yang was humming so cheerfully that it was almost annoying.

Ruby's expression was the same as usual though. Rigid, silent, tightlipped.

"Hey sis! Howtcha doing?"

"…"

"I was thinking, that bag of yours look quite heavy. If you don't mind, I can definitely carry it for you!"

"…?" A crook in the eyebrow. No words either, but Ruby was staring at her. Yang was going to flat out admit that it was a way of saying thank-you-very-much-for-saving-my-life, but for some reason the situation suddenly felt embarrassing. So looking away, the blonde scratched her head and muttered,

"It's because, well, you _know_, because you… _helped me_… and well… ahhh! Just give me the bags already, and we'll call it training under stress or something GUWOKRKAK?!"

The transfer was instantaneous. One second she was mulling over an insignificant dilemma, and the next she was crushed beneath an unexpected weight. What the hell? These had to weigh twenty kilograms at least! And now that she was all tangled up by the bag handles, she couldn't even climb back to her own feet!

"Uh," Yang poked a palm out of the mess and waved pitifully, "A little help here, big sis? Ruby? Please?"

There was no response. Slowly but surely the footsteps faded into the distance. The poor blonde groaned.

* * *

**Day 6:**

Today was pretty special. While they were grunting through a wild plain, Ruby Rose had suddenly ducked behind a nearby rock with Yang following suit quickly after a second's confusion. It wasn't a moment too soon, because a herd of deer emerged right then from behind a small slope to their two o' clock.

Ruby fished out a knife from her back and balanced the blade between her fingers. The young girl's gaze held intense concentration, and Yang held her breath. Her big sis was an expert survivalist and master of the wild; of course she wouldn't need her sniper rifle for something as trivial as hunting fresh meat. That'd be like lighting a smoke with her gauntlets, like _so_ totally overkill. _This is going to be so cool! _Finally the young girl found the perfect timing, and leaned back just a little like a spring ready to recoil. Yang gulped nervously. Then the young girl flung her arm outwards with absolutely perfect form, and the knife –

– breezed right past Yang in a straight line before landing a good fifty meters away. The blonde did not seem to comprehend what happened until she touched a hand to her right cheek and found traces of blood. She turned to stared dazedly at Ruby, and the young girl simply said,

"Oh."

"Oh? What do you mean _oh!?_" Yang Xiao Long shrieked and landed backwards on her butt, "What the hell was that? I thought you're an expert at this! Scratch that; even a complete newbie can't possibly throw _a hundred and eighty degrees off!_ Is this a conspiracy? Did someone hire you to kill me!?"

Ruby ignored all her rants and turned around. Incredible disappointment floated across her face as she watched the frightened deer bounding away into the distance. Yang was beyond incredulity at this point and she was about to further berate the girl until abruptly, she realized a terrible fear and looked quickly towards the ground. She screamed,

"Wait a sec. Is that… No. _No, no, no, nooooooo! _Frank! Andy! _Lewis! _How can you do this!?_ How can you kill them!?_"

Yang pounded the floor with earth shattering fury, and cried so loud that it shook the heavens. The three irreplaceable companions she so mourned for, the only _lovers _she would give everything and anything even as they laid uselessly on the earthen floor, life slipping away into the oblivion were…

… Her hair. More specifically, three strands of golden hair that became the unfortunate victims of Ruby's 'incredible' knife throwing skill. Yang stood up shakily from the ground, eyes red and fists clenched, as she said quietly towards Ruby,

"You are my friend, and twice you've saved my life, so I'm going to give you one chance. Apologize to my poor babies whom you so cruelly _murdered, _and I may just forgive you. _Now._"

Ruby still stared longingly at where the herd of deer vanished into the horizon. A bit of saliva almost trailed down the corner of her mouth, but she wiped it away.

"Very well then," Yang Xiao Long smashed her fists together and strode purposefully towards Ruby. It would seem that today, she would mourn for _four_, "It is with great sadness I do this, but there can be no right in this world until the deaths of my beloveds are avenged. NOW DIEEEEEEEEEEE, RUBY ROSE!"

And so another day passed, with Yang racing after Ruby with righteous fury, and the latter dodging every shot or punch while carefully herding the wild human towards the right direction.

* * *

**Day 7:**

A bath is important. Not only does it keeps a person clean and healthy, it also relaxes the muscles and soothes the mind. Yang loved it. Her wonderful hair notwithstanding, she also believed that a good bath was absolute integral in starting the day off with a bang. Or a Yang, of course! Get it? Get it?

As human population grow and technological advancement rampant across all Kingdoms, it was getting harder to find clean rivers especially those downstream or leading towards the sea. So naturally, Yang was very happy to find a clean river where they could take a dip in and wash themselves. Barring the stupid mine incident, she hadn't bathed even once since the start of their journey. Since they were on the road this was to be expected, and Ruby seemed totally fine going for days or even weeks without one, but unfortunately Yang hadn't got used to it yet. She especially _ached_ to wash her precious locks.

They were now set at an open river bank, with Ruby testing the waters to see if it was safe, and Yang just finished setting down the luggage. Once done, the blonde eagerly pulled out a few choice bottles of shampoo, and stripped herself to bare on the spot before jumping into the river with a loud whoop. On the riverbank, Ruby did the same – to which Yang tactfully took a look at the other direction, because who knows, Ruby might be one of those who did not appreciate their bodies being stared at – and carefully wrapped a towel over some choice belongings in a bundle to carry. Then, she walked towards a far, far, _far _away spot upstream where Yang could just barely see her tiny figure, set her things down, and finally get into the river to bathe –

"Wait. That's not right! Why are bathing all the way up there!? Don't be shy!" yelling, Yang splashed through the water with stomping feet and made her way towards the young girl. As usual, Ruby did not answer her and merely casted Yang a curious look when the blonde finally reached her. Yang look at the clueless girl exasperatedly; it didn't seem like a conscious decision, so maybe she was just… not used to bathing with someone else?

The blonde shook off the trivial question and said with a smile, "Never mind. C'mon, I'll help wash your hair! Yours don't really need much maintenance, but a woman's hair is her life and I am _very _good at it!"

Yang waved a hand over Ruby's own, and missed. She frowned. Wave, miss. Wave, miss. Slowly the blonde placed her hands on the waist before glaring at Ruby with a stern face she had never used before, and said,

"Big sis."

There was no reply.

"_Ruby."_

This time, the girl jumped a little and stared warily at Yang. The blonde's eyes held not the slightest amusement as she spoke slowly and deliberately, "Look. I can kinda guess that you're averse to touch, and I respect that. But we are now in a _bath, _where people sit down, relax, and _enjoy_. And if there is more than one person, then we enjoy bathing _together. _That means no acting like a mouse that's scared of everything."

Yang took one step forwards, and Ruby took one step back. Yang raised a menacing eyebrow and stepped forwards one more time, and although the redhead was now glaring almost antagonistically right back at her, she did not retreat this time. Yang nodded with satisfaction and looked at the only two shampoos she grabbed before coming over. After a frown and a thought, she chose the smoother, light blue colored shampoo and commanded,

"Sit down at that rock over there. Don't worry, I'll be right behind you, and _don't move your head away or I'll_ _drown you in water, you hear me?_"

The death threats didn't seem particularly motivating, and Ruby looked like she was ready to bolt. In the end, she resigned herself to her fate and sat down unwillingly at the pointed spot. Yang moved gingerly behind, trying to find a sweet spot on the flat side of another rock, and after some time finally began. First, she got a water scoop and pour water over Ruby's hair until every strand seemed drenched and loose. Then, she began massaging the shampoo starting from the center in a circle, to spread them out evenly. Yang was careful to make sure that every root was covered, before she began massaging with both hands in a slow but deliberate fashion.

Ruby was stiff at the beginning, naturally. She had obviously never done something like this before, and being forced in by a threat didn't exactly spark her best interests. But as time passed, through Yang's deft and powerful hands pushing and stroking away at sweet spots she didn't even know exist, the young girl finally began to relax and let go. Her shoulders lowered visibly, and her breathing slowed until they evened at a pace. At one point, she wobbled before Yang caught her by the shoulders, and the blonde realized that the young girl had actually fallen asleep. She smiled.

For the rest of the day, until Ruby Rose finally woke up (and fretted a little about lost time, but somehow there was no will behind those words), Yang stayed by her side and simply enjoyed the time passing by.

* * *

**Day 9:**

The Grimm are a peculiar creature. Fearless, monstrous, and born a natural killer, they would continuously hone their craft at killing until every human was completely exterminated from the world. Therefore, it was without exaggeration to say that they were one of the greatest threats of mankind.

But nothing in this world (except God, perhaps) was omnipotent, and the Grimm definitely have their share of stupid moments. The younger Grimm for example, had no sense of caution and could only obey their destructive instinct like a starved wolf. This made exterminating them a mere matter of convenience for any competent Huntsman, or even a trainee.

Yang belonged to neither category. She was _better_. In a split second she leaned out of the way of a charging Ursa before slamming her left fist into the flat side of its big, ugly skull. A shotgun round to the head was of course fatal, but her victim literally had its head torn clean off the shoulders, and she hadn't even put more than half of her strength into her fists. The girl could not hold the grin spreading all the way to her ears – whatever happened that day at Jiu Xu, it made her stronger. Much, _much _stronger than she used to be.

And she _loved _it.

"Torya! Eiyaa! _Wochaaaaa!_ Oh my god this is _so much fun hahahaha!_" The brawler laughed ecstatically as she dove right into another group of Ursi and began punching. Countless bodies littered the air before they exploded in a cloud of smoke, and within seconds the small group of Grimm that had assaulted them earlier were all but exterminated. Amidst the raining bones Yang stood alone with her gauntlets leaking smokes from its barrels and a bored look on her face. She complained,

"What? That's it? C'mon, I haven't even warmed up yet, aw! How're you doing, big sis?"

A series of mechanical clicks answered her call, and Yang smiled wryly before turning to face Ruby: her partner had already holstered her rifle and was looking coolly at her direction. There were only a few bodies littering the ground around her, so it would seem that she had left the main bulk for Yang to deal with. Normally, their roles would be reversed. Was it a sign that Ruby was putting more trust in her? The blonde simply felt giddy thinking about it.

"So, why the change of mind? You usually want them all for yourself!" Yang asked while wiping the soot off her clothes. The young girl said nothing though, and she treated it as an invitation to talk further.

"I'm not complaining, though. I've been feeling so strong lately, it feels like I can knock 'em straight to the stratosphere, hell yeah!" the blonde gave her hair one last sweep before walking towards Ruby, ready to resume their journey, "So what are we waiting for? Let's move on to –"

The world turned upside down, and suddenly she found herself flying through the air before landing with a rough 'oomph' on the ground. _What? What happened? _As Yang climbed quickly to her feet and looked backwards, she reeled in shock to find Ruby standing directly at where she was before, parrying away a gigantic Beowolf's swipe as it roared angrily at the failed ambush. The young woman paled instantly at the sight – a simple cut to the neck, and Aura empowered or not she would be dead nonetheless. _How in the world? I didn't sense any killing intent at all!_

The young girl turned to look Yang directly in the eye, then pulled the trigger. Instantly the Beowolf was sliced in half with its dying whimper still rumbling inside its throat. Then, Ruby retracted Crescent Rose and slowly walked towards the blonde, looking tense and almost _angry_. Yang tried to squeeze out a word.

"I –" Yang started.

Ruby breezed right past the blonde, nonchalant. She said nothing. The young woman tightened her fists into a shivering ball, but in the end she bottled up all those feelings and followed quietly after the girl. She would rectify this, Yang thought to herself. The next time they fight, she would never allow herself to drop her guard again.

But it was a pointless vow. She would not fight a Grimm again until quite some time, because every time the monsters strayed too close, be it one, ten, or fifty, Ruby Rose would kill them all.

* * *

_And I thought we were finally going to get along too. What was I thinking at the time, really..._


	5. Chapter 4 - Futile

**Author's Notes: Next week I have Monday and Tuesday off as public holiday. By that logic, is it fine if I delay the next chapter by 2 days, because you know...? Yeah...? No...?**

* * *

**Day 13:**

The past few days were a series of monotonous activities. Meadows and troughs, rocks and mountains, Grimm and wildlife; the duo passed through them all with the practiced ease of a seasoned traveler. Yang was developing remarkably fast for a newbie, and since her close brush with death she was acting more mature and thoughtful. Once in a while a Tree of Life (a huge tree at least ten meters wide that could easily house up to a thousand wild birds) would still make her completely lose her mind, but she was getting good at this. She was even starting to feel like a real adventurer.

_Or I would, if only she didn't…_

"Hey sis –"

She wasn't there. Yang was not surprised to find Ruby missing as she set her bags down while stretching for a bit, ready to set up camp. By now she had the menial tasks memorized to the bone, and within minutes she had the tent set up and a portable stove placed at the edge of the campsite. Then, she headed back inside her tent and laid down onto the ground, pondering her next action.

She had already eaten earlier, and it was a bit too early to be preparing dinner. Out of sudden inspiration, Yang took out her scroll and pulled up a virtual map of their current location. She found out that they were well beyond the only named terrain along their path, and by that definition dangerous – which was the Snake Jungle they bypassed through the Dust mine – and was now on a straight line path towards the borders of Atlas.

Optimistically speaking, they could reach there in three days or more, which would be just slightly over on her prediction (and of course, if they took a taxi they would reach there within the day). But she had learned it the hard way that things seldom went according to plan, and considering that they've had some minor delays, Ruby's twenty days projection was ultimately more accurate. And of course she was, her partner was the master of the roads after all.

… And, damn it. She was trying so hard to distract herself, bored enough to pick up a map and do math with it. But in the end her thoughts kept straying back to her partner. Yang could not help but be worried about Ruby, especially since she was starting to disappear more and more frequently without warning. The first time she did it, Yang had panicked and literally hollered about for almost an hour before the young girl finally showed up. Worse, the only reply she got out of Ruby even after repeated fits of protests was,

"I was scouting."

Yang hated it. _Scouting my ass_; she knew exactly what Ruby was doing but was helpless to stop her. It could have been tolerable if Ruby went disappearing only during camp times, but the young Executioner obviously did not share the same sentiment. Imagine wading through a river filled with poisonous snakes and quite possibly aquatic Grimm, and the only guide who could lead you towards the _right_ shore – she had seen the wrong ones ending in copious amount of blood – had suddenly vanished into thin air.

It was a grueling decision to make, or at least until a slithery feeling down her pants made the answer obvious and instantaneous. Again she was given the silent treatment when the matter was brought up, and by then Yang was simply too weary to persist.

And of course, yes, the god forsaken silence. It was another thing Yang could not understand about the red-cloaked reaper. At first she had thought it to be a temporary symptom, that maybe the young girl was just feeling awkward or embarrassed that she chose silence over speech. But now it had been almost two weeks since they departed from Jiu Xu, and barring the first day she could literally count all the sentences Ruby had spoken on one hand. Impossibly, the uncomfortable stillness managed to worsen even further – the two of them hadn't exchanged more than two or three sentences since that fateful day, and despite her tough exterior the negative emotions was starting to chew Yang from inside out. What was going on here? She screwed up _once, _sure, but she sure as hell did not deserve this terrible _indifference _from Ruby! It's almost as if –

"– Okay, I need to stop thinking. It's just a strange habit; I'll get used to it."

So Yang Xiao Long said to herself before drifting off into dreamland, hoping that her fantasies would keep the disconcerting thoughts at bay.

* * *

It was high noon when she set out, and it wasn't until midnight when Ruby finally came back. During that period of time Yang had scouted out the perimeter, cooked herself dinner, played through some mobile games, responded to nature's call and basically exhausted every action imaginable for a lonely person dumped in an isolated jungle. Yang Xiao Long, sexiest lady in the world, _dumped _aside like she's worth less than a piece of tissue_. _Pissed didn't even begin to describe the depths of her searing frustration, and the blonde was finally resolved to wring an answer out of Ruby even if it meant getting into a fight she couldn't win.

But all that emotion disappeared the moment she saw Ruby walking in with her battle scythe on one hand, and a body riddled with countless scratches and dirt. Without hesitation, the blonde rushed to her partner's side and exclaimed,

"What's this? What happened to you? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"… I cleared out a nest."

Instantly her eyes narrowed. As a Guardian, her very first trial was to clear out the Beowolf packs lurking at the base of a nearby mountain. She was given two months to succeed, and as a youngster Yang had thought the task to be so absurdly easy she went in with barely a day's worth of water and supply. She had been so naïve. Had Lily not caught wind of the news and came to her rescue, she might've been toyed to death by the deadly predators far cunning and familiar with the terrain than she gave them credit for.

A pack consisted of twelve or more Grimm in a group. A nest or lair was the term people used to describe the attraction point of those creatures, and as you might imagine, there were a lot more Grimm lurking at those areas. Hell, there could easily be hundreds.

"Are you crazy? Why didn't you bring me along? I can help you!" Yang demanded while pulling the former Executioner closer towards the fire. Surprisingly, the young girl did not shy away from the contact and allowed Yang to do a thorough inspection. But she did not answer the question either. As the silence lengthened it was clear that was the end of the conversation, and for once Yang was too engrossed with the task at hand to chat further. After a few tense minutes, the blonde finally leaned back with a sigh of relief. Most of the tears in Ruby's garment did not reach the skin, and the worst wounds she found were just superficial. _She really is a league of her own, and I'm just..._

With that done, Yang went over to the stove and scooped over some pine soup before handing it to Ruby. It was obviously cold, but after half a day of hunting the gir needed all the sustenance she could get.

"Drink!" said Yang as Ruby looked on with puzzlement. It was a familiar delicacy, but the same kind of tree might differ depending on its grown land and climate. The red-haired girl shook her head before trying to move to another corner of the camp, but Yang would have none of it and held her grip,

"It's just soup; something to drink and feel relaxed after a long day. It's something mother taught me and I swear it's not going to upset your stomach. So _drink_."

Ruby frowned as she stared hard at the extended bowl. After nearly ten seconds' of consideration she finally took it to her mouth, then paused for an instant as she motioned for Yang to release her other arm. The blonde hesitated before doing just that, and the young girl swiftly downed the soup into her stomach fast like a thirsty drunkard. She handed the bowl back for a second serving, and satisfied, Yang smiled wryly and did just that.

As she watched over the red-haired girl, it suddenly occurred to Yang that this might be the great opportunity she's hoping for. This could be a sign that Ruby's opening up again, and even if it wasn't it was clear they needed to talk to each other.

"Hey, Ruby, there's something I want to talk about," Yang said while holding a tentative hand towards her partner's shoulder. She 'missed' as it slid just a fraction out of the way, but she did not let it get to her, "Maybe it's just me, but you're been real quiet after we left the city, and even quieter still since that… day. I er… Are you… okay?"

Suddenly there was a scatter of red petals, and before she knew it Ruby had brought back the whole pot and guzzling them down like she'd never eaten in her life. Yang swung back and forth between the faraway stove and the girl with an open mouth. How, what, _seriously? _She allowed herself precisely one second to gape before continuing as if nothing was amiss,

"Big sis, I'll be honest. I'm… _uncomfortable _with the way you are now. To begin with, why don't you talk? You're just fine back at Jiu Xu! What's changed? Is it a habit or yours or something, or… did I do something wrong? Did you actually… don't want to…?"

Again Ruby did not answer, although that's most likely because she was still sucking on the pine soup. Yang was starting to feel a tiny bit of regret for offering it in the first place, but she couldn't back down now,

"Okay, let's talk about the other thing then. Look, I… I know I made a mistake, a few days ago. My Aura is so much stronger than before that I got arrogant. I should've noticed that Beowolf; I should've checked before celebrating, I… fucked up. But!" Yang slapped a palm onto her thigh and spoke louder, "That's no reason to ban me from fighting! Sure you didn't say anything, but you've been killing every Grimm before they even get close! And don't think I don't know what this 'scouting' thing is about, you're basically –"

Abruptly, Ruby jolted up from her seat like a spring coil, giving Yang the scare of her life. As the young girl settled the empty pot to a side, she pulled her cloak over her face and waved an arm across her shoulder. Yang didn't understand at the beginning. Soon Ruby repeated the motion again with clear impatience, and she finally recognized it as the sign to –

Yang squeaked, "Wait, what? We're clearing out? It's twelve thirty midnight! What's the rush?"

"We are late," was Ruby's only answer. The young girl pulled up her flashlight and headed straight for the trees, ignoring the frantic commotions behind her as Yang scrambled to pack everything in before chasing after Ruby. They would trek through the untamed lands for ten hours without rest, before taking a short thirty minutes break to trek yet another ten hours. By then Yang was so exhausted that she had utterly forgotten all the raging questions she was going to bombard Ruby with. Therefore she had lost her best chance to resolve their communication problems, and her hesitation would give her no choice but to bottle up all of her emotions.

It was a mistake that she would come to regret.

* * *

**Day 15:**

It was late afternoon. The venturing duo trudged on a muddy path through acres of greenish paddy field swaying gently on both sides of the road. It was only fifteen days, and they've finished more than three quarter of their journey – an impressive feat on foot – but neither faces showed the slightest bit of joy and relief.

Ruby looked as cool as ever, seemingly unperturbed by the elements or the harsh march she had forced upon them a day earlier. She had faced worse conditions up North. Yang on the other hand, was obviously straining to keep up pace as her legs wobbled visibly every few seconds to the weight of her luggage and slippery road conditions. The blonde had aching muscles up her buttock she didn't even know existed, and her sleep was downright terrible since she had to wake up halfway for her watch. Ruby was downright draconian when it came to security.

But Yang hung on without a word of complaint. She was used to being pit against harsh odds as a direct result of parental teaching, and it was almost like old times when she recalled her first outdoor camping at ten years old. No, this wasn't the real problem. Unconsciously, the blonde turned to look left, then right, then left, and then right again until she caught herself just in time before losing balance. Yang shook her head, trying to clear her mind, but almost immediately caught herself looking again before grunting in frustration. It was hopeless; she just couldn't stop herself and she thought knew very well why.

This was only the second time they've walked on man-made paths, shoddy it might be – the first being the bloody Dust mine which she was keen to forget – and one that was completely peaceful without the need to worry for the Grimm or the wilderness. The countryside was not a familiar face, but it was still a piece of cultivated land and a face of society that raised unspeakable longingness within Yang for her home. The paddy fields, the man-made posts, the scarecrows; they all looked so wonderful to her. She missed the streets. She wouldn't mind doing some footwork with her lackeys. More than anything, she wanted to check up on Da personally and tell him everything had happened up till now.

But that wouldn't do. Yang slapped herself lightly, and this time kept her gaze focused steadily on the path. Missing one's home was never a sin, but turning it into an excuse for self-pity or weakness was definitely not the right thing to do. This was the path she had chosen, and despite all that had happened – well, it was only two weeks, but – she did not regret her choice. She would not regret her choice. Wherever her choice led her, she would see it through until the very end.

As Yang glanced at Ruby's back though, she couldn't help but complain just a tiny bit inside her heart. _If only Ruby will not act like half a mute all the time, then maybe…_

A raised hand. An abrupt stop. Yang barely braked in time before she noticed a growing dot at the furthest end of the road. As the thing approached accompanied by constant rumbles and short bursts of sputtering, the blonde realized with a start that it was a vehicle. More specifically, it was an old truck in fading white paint driving slowly towards them. Yang's throat felt dry. An unbelievable sensation had seized hold of her entire body, and when she finally found her voice she realized that it was simple, pure _delight, _

"Oh my god it's a _someone__! _Maybe they're trading – let's talk to them A-S-A-P!"

Without even waiting for the young girl's reply, the blonde bounded down the lane with the speed of light while waving her hands, shouting,

"Hello! Please stop, we will like to talk to you!"

A string of curses exploded out of the driver's seat as the vehicle skidded to an abrupt stop to avoid running into Yang. An elderly, long-faced man with long spikes of grey hair bobbed out of the vehicle and shouted, "Shiva! Don't run towards a car ya' idiotic buffoon!"

"Hahaha! Sorry, sorry, it's just, well, we were travelling on foot for quite some time," Yang grinned widely while apologizing with a wink; she had only just realized how much she missed talking to another human being, or at least not one that's quiet enough to be an inanimate object, "Anyway, I'm Yang, Yang Xiao Long from Jiu Xu. And you are?"

The old man looked her up and down sternly, seemingly judging her by her appearance to determine whether she's true or a just another bandit. Finally he gave a sharp nod before turning off his revving engine and stepped out, "I am One."

"I'm sorry?"

"My name, is One! If you have a problem with it then bring it up to mother! Seriously, it's _always _the same reaction," The old man said impatiently, "Anyway, I suppose you want to buy something?"

"Er, well," Yang made a mental note of their current provisions and realized that they… don't really need anything, "Actually, no. I just want to ta –"

"Let me make this clear," the old man cut her off instantly. It's amazing how such a weak, almost wimpy voice could carry such _menace_, "You ran up this _narrow_ road like a rocket. You risk me flattening you under my wheel or worse, swerve the whole thing into the paddy fields. After all that, you're telling me you don't want to _buy anything?_"

"I, eh, ergh," Normally this type of situations would be pancake for Yang, but her sleep deprived brain and overenthusiasm had tied her tongue in knots, "I'm reaaaaaally sorry, I –"

"– What do you have, elder?"

"Just call me One!" the old man snapped reflexively before looking towards the blonde left to find Ruby Rose staring back with her grey eyes. Yang jumped to hear her voice so close, at the same time feeling just a tad surprised, "Now who are you? Are you this girl's travelling companion?"

"Ah! Not like that, old man! You –" "_One!_" "– need to answer her questions directly first, or it'll be like talking to a brick wall –"

"I'm Ruby, and yes, Yang is travelling with me," Ruby said easily, and Yang felt her jaw drop open in shock. _Wait, what?_ "Also, as I said, please tell us what you have to sell. After all, we can't really buy anything without know what goods you have in the first place."

"… Hmph," One glared at the young girl, but Ruby seemed utterly impervious to his intimidation even as she gave an innocent smile that stunned Yang enough to fall on her butt, "I sell a lot of things; can't possibly name em' all, girl. What do you want?"

"Dust," Ruby said simply, "Ammo. We ran into quite a bit of Grimm along the way, and can use a refill. Let's see… 8 cartridges of .338 Lapua Magnum, 3 – no, 4 standard Dust grenades, and I still want to see your ware just in case there's anything I like."

"A _Lapua Magnum? _You carrying a sniper rifle with _that_ size?" This time it was the trader who looked surprised, but Ruby confirmed nothing as she cocked her head to one side and waited. Finally the old man grunted, "Well, not my problem. Give me a second to tidy things up, will ya? Wasn't expectin' this today so things a little messy."

That was that. Just as he took a corner and vanished from view Ruby looked towards the slackened Yang and asked,

"Yang? Is there anything you want? I remember you used up quite a bit of bullets too."

"I, er, I, sure, of course," Yang rasped from the ground, feeling both dizzy and incredibly stupid. She blurted out, "Wait. Ruby, you… you can _talk? _I mean, of course you can, but you… you _can _talk?"

Ruby looked like she was about to laugh. She replied with a tinge of incredulity, "What kind of a question is that? I'm doing that right now! Are you tired or… well, I guess you are. Stupid of me too, there."

"That's not… I mean…" Yang desperately tried to form words into her mouth, and after what seemed like a lifetime she finally succeeded, "Then why haven't you say anything at all this time!? I've been trying to get to you for _ages_, but you ignored almost everything I say and I don't even know why! But you talked to _him! _Just what is…"

The blonde stared at the back of the caravan while listening to the occasional thumps and tinkering of items. A grumpy old stranger with pointy hair had gotten Ruby to speak more words than they ever did for the past _two weeks. _The absolute bitterness dancing at the tip of her tongue was indescribable, "Just why, dammit!?"

"Well," the former Executioner's eyes glinted, "It's not efficient."

"What?"

"Because it's a waste of energy," Ruby waved a hand carelessly, "Trading is one thing, and we also need to appear normal or we'll attract attention, but otherwise I don't want to spend focus on pointless things when a Demon may just be around the corner. It's an extreme example, but you never know, especially since my stamina isn't that great. In fact, once you get used to this, I think you'll surpass me quite soon."

Yang couldn't breathe. It's like her brain had screeched to a complete halt. All she felt was this inexplicable feeling of _everything_ grinding through her body like a lawnmower, starting from her heart.

"Anyway, back to the point. What are you going to buy? You…" Perhaps she saw something in her expression, but Ruby abruptly stopped and pressed her lips together tightly, "Never mind, I'll get them for you. You seem really tired, so try and rest up as much as possible before I finish up here. There is one more obstacle, and it will not be easy."

Then she was gone.

* * *

_We bid the old man goodbye after we got the goods. _She _talked to a few more people along the way for information. Then we got back to the wilderness. The end._

… … … _Yeah. That's all I want to remember about that day._


	6. Chapter 5 - First Contact

**Author's Note: Longest chapter thus far. I'm a bit worried if I can meet the deadline next week, but eh, when the time comes I will have an ex - I mean, a chapter ready. Yeah.**

**As usual, thank you for the reviews!**

* * *

**Day 16:**

Admittedly, no matter how tough or gifted she might be in survival, Yang Xiao Long was ultimately just a newbie. She understood that there were many things that she was ignorant of, and while she did not necessarily appreciate every decision Ruby made, she trusted them to be of sound logic and even obvious once explained properly. If Ruby would open that super-glued zip of hers, that was.

That belief was shaken today by the incomprehensible sight going on in front of her.

"Hey sis," Yang started, "We are going to cross this cliff, right?"

They were now at Vytal's borders, where the good government had set up a toll about fifty kilometers upstream for all common travelers to pass by. Of course, they were anything but, so things had to be done a different way. Ruby set herself at the edge of the cliff and pulled out a massive length of rope from her bag. As she began affixing a grappling hook to it, Yang Xiao Long masterfully deduced that by utter stoicism her partner meant yes and prattled on,

"Yep, of course we are, the path to Atlas is on the other side after all. And of course I know that we have to avoid the toll because we don't want to be seen by people, no problem girl – but wait. Look to your right! Is that a _bridge _I'm seeing?"

The other cliff was completely bare of anything that might catch a hook and hold on. With the two sides being at least two hundred meters apart, getting across directly without a powerful booster of sorts was impossible even for Ruby Rose.

"It sure looks quiet up there! Like, not even a soul to be seen anywhere around it! How wonderful! I mean sure, it looks old and abandoned and has cracks all over, but it's stone-made so it'll have no problems holding our weight! It'll _get us across!_"

As Ruby secured the rope tightly around her waist and began doing the same with Yang's though, the blonde simply could not hold it any longer. In a flash, she made to grab – or at least tried to, _god dammit she's so fast_ – Ruby's shoulders before hissing down onto the girl,

"Ruby! There's a _bridge _right next to us! Why on earth are we climbing down_ a bottomless cliff _when we can just _cross. The. Bridge!? _Ruby? Ruby!"

Finally the young girl looked up to Yang with a strange smile on her face. The blonde was filled with anticipation thinking that the red-headed mute would _finally _enlighten her on the extraordinary choice, but in the end Ruby Rose simply secured the knot around Yang's waist before heading straight to the cliff's edge. Yang finally snapped: That's _it!_

"You know what? _Fine! _You go ahead and climb god-knows-how-many-thousands-feet down _and_ _then up_ to the other side, and _I'm _just going to cross the freaking bridge! _Later!_"

Without wasting another second, the blonde tugged roughly apart the rope on her waist and stomped away to the stone structure. She took a peek backwards to check on Ruby's reaction, only to find Ruby completely engrossed in finding the perfect spot and got even angrier. Soon she came to a complete stop directly in front of the bridge. It was then she noticed a number of things.

First, the bridge was a lot more fragile than she thought. From the side it hadn't looked that bad, but upon closer inspection there were a _lot _more cracks _and _gaps than she gave it credit in the first place. The next thing that gave her pause was the rusty old gate barring the way, and a surreal number of barbs wrapped around it like something right out of a nightmare. Again, she didn't notice it earlier because the side view was blocked by a huge boulder serving as a foundation to the bridge. _How could it look so different from one side to the other? This is as terrible as those facial cream advertisements! _

Finally, there was a half-rotten board on the side smeared with a crude but black bolded message saying –

'DO NOT PASS. EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.'

– and an official Beacon Academy stamp at the bottom right corner to sum it up. For those who weren't aware, Beacon Academy was the most prestigious Huntsman combat academy in the entire Vytal Kingdom, and to see their symbol so far away from central Vale meant a _lot _of something. By then Yang's impulsive drive had all but shrank into a pitiful ball of regret. _Ookay, _Yang thought to herself, _maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Guess I should go back. Yeah. Let's –_

Yang could never tell exactly what made her did it, because her emotions at the time were such a jumble of mess. It could because of… yesterday. There were definitely elements of challenged pride, and Ruby's lack of response seemed to say that she was incapable of crossing one lousy and _slightly _precarious bridge. Maybe she was just plain stubborn, which was her genetic nature and there's nothing she could do to fix it. There was also shame, anger, envy, competitiveness… so many feelings; too many to determine which emotion was the one that burned the final end of her rationality.

She could tell who started it all though. Cold silver stared into violet, and for an instant Yang Xiao Long saw red.

_Ruby. Rose!_

Yang Xiao Long tore her eyes away from the small figure and glared at the gate. At first she considered climbing over it, but that required a kind of finesse she couldn't be bothered to try now. A single punch was all that's needed to burst the gate inwards, and within minutes Yang found herself strolling through five, ten, twenty steps with surprisingly no problems whatsoever. _That went better than I thought, _the blonde thought smugly to herself, _it didn't look like a death trap, and then it looked like a death trap, but it wasn't a death trap after –_

There was a loud crack, and then the groans of bending steel. She never even realized what happened until she was falling through the skies.

_Oh mother, _she thought to herself, _I keep forgetting Lily isn't here to stop me anymore…_

Then a rock collided into her head, and she knew no longer.

* * *

Yang woke up to the glaring white sun and an insistent prodding at a sore part of her head. In a daze she tried to swat away the source of her discomfort, but soon discovered that it was only Ruby dabbing a wet cloth to her wounds. The young woman groaned aloud as the rough treatment hit a sweet spot, but she neither moved away nor tried to swat at it again, knowing that her fingers would only hit nothing but air. She opened her mouth a little, sucked in a deep breath and asked,

"Where are we?"

Her mind clicked even though there was no answer. The whole fucking bridge had collapsed, and she was knocked out by one of the splinters before she had time to reorient. _What a wonderful day this is turning out to be. _Surprisingly enough her body was relatively unhurt, and even the luggage she carried behind her back seemed fine despite looking a bit battered. Either she was unbelievably lucky, or…

"I see. There's a shallow path on this side of the crevice. No wonder you didn't stop me," Yang couldn't help but laugh sarcastically, "Or maybe you thought it was enough to get rid of me, eh?"

Even as the words spilled out Yang recoiled in horror of herself. What was she saying? It was her own stubbornness that had led to this outcome, and Ruby had taken care of her for the entire time she was unconscious. What on Remnant had gotten over her?

"I – sorry. That's not what I meant. Forget what I said, I…" for some reason, the simple words felt as if came they were squeezed out of a tight tube, "_Thank you_. Again. Anyway I'm fine, so let's get going shall we?"

Yang pushed herself up from the ground and fought off the slight vertigo that came with it. She waited to see if Ruby wanted to do anything else with the blood stained cloth, but the young girl easily allowed the interruption and rose to her feet. She glanced once at the luggage and back towards Yang, and finally a smile peeked through as the brawler said wryly,

"No rest for the wounded, I see. Just give me a second to get ready and _don't go disappearing _on me, I have _no _idea where this place is and I can't climb back up by myself."

The red head did not. Ruby waited until Yang had the bags set firmly on her shoulders and gave her the signal, and only then did she start walking. The blonde suspected that Ruby acting more 'thoughtful' than usual was more due to the harsher environment than actual concern for her, but at the same time, she couldn't help but feel comforted a little in the heart. Yang wasn't sure whether to feel glad or ashamed to feel this way.

She threw the jumbled emotions into the back of her mind, and moved on.

* * *

The passage itself was like any other, she supposed. It was unexpectedly wide, with soft but firm brown soil paving the path they treaded and rocky walls to the right curving along into the unseen distance. To their left was of course, an incredibly steep decline into what seemed to be the end of Remnant. Once again Yang thanked the heavens that the bridge had collapsed almost immediately after just a few steps – anymore closer and she would really plunge into the abyss, and that would be instant death no matter how strong her Aura was.

Occasionally there would be a normal-looking shrubbery or two which Yang could not care less, but was of great interest to Ruby. She asked, she didn't tell; pretty standard routine as far as she could tell. With the birds chirping from above their heads and footsteps creaking monotonous imprints into her mind, Yang could almost ignore the swirling white mist filling every inch of the land like a plague.

Ah yes, the mist. Up until thirty minutes ago since they had begun their descent deeper into the crevice, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But suddenly white tendrils seeped into view like snakes, cold and indifferent, and soon they filled every space in the air no matter where they turned. It didn't take long for Yang to feel her skin sticky and her clothes wet, and it reminded her most unpleasantly of the days they spent inside that bloody cave. Although it wasn't nearly thick enough that it'd affect visibility, but she didn't like it one bit at all.

"I really don't see how this path can lead us to the other side," Yang asked aloud, but at this point it was more habit than an actual question, "Are you sure we're on the right track?"

To her surprise, she got an answer.

"Yes," the young girl replied tersely, before adding a few more words, "There is a way. But it is dangerous. Stay close."

Yang opened her palms behind her head as a gesture of casual understanding, but secretly she was surprised to hear so many words tumbling from the girl's mouth, and even more so to hear the word 'danger' from her. Certainly the mist seemed kind of sudden, but everything else had looked exactly as they should… or not. Casually the blonde stretched gaily and yawned, and as her eyes slid backwards she thought she spotted strange shadows hidden just behind the veil. There could be more where she could not see. _Bandits, maybe? The Grimm wouldn't wait. But who else would even come to such a place? _Regardless, if it was up to her she would drag the bastards into the open already, but since her partner betrayed nothing, Yang decided to do the same. Ruby probably had a plan of her own, and she didn't want to screw that up because of one unchecked impulse. The duo marched on into the unknown distance.

"… Speaking of which, this mist is annoying," the blonde brought out her compass and watched the needle go round the world as she muttered, "And I'm pretty sure this is in pristine condition when I used it a day ago. What is wrong with this place?"

The figure before her suddenly stopped, and Yang too came to a halt and waited obediently for Ruby's next move. Ten seconds passed, and Yang grew a little impatient. Thirty seconds walked by, and the blonde was tapping her feet and looking about her surroundings distractedly. After a full two minutes of inactivity Yang finally lost her patience and stepped forwards towards the young girl. She seized her by the shoulders and exclaimed,

"C'mon, sis! What are we waiting for? What are you –"

What exactly did she see, Yang was never quite sure. All she could recall was an eyeball lolling from its socket, and a rotten tongue so long it curled circles on the ground, and that was more than she cared to remember. It was ironic that Ruby's aversion to touch gave at least her subconscious enough warning, because she did not think she could have reacted in time otherwise even with ten years more under her belt. Just before its gaping maw could swallow her, Yang threw a soaring uppercut directly into its chin and sent it flying far, far away before crashing in a broken heap. Then, the brawler felt her legs go weak and dropped limply to her butt. What, in fucking hell, was _that?_

Every instinct in her body screamed that she should get the hell away as soon as possible, but Yang capped the lid of her panic forcefully. She had to know her enemy if she wanted to survive. With extremely stiff movements, walked towardsthe terrible monstrosity she just struck. Just in case, she fired three more rounds just a few steps away to make sure the thing was really dead, before moving closer to kick the lying corpse facing upwards. She gasped.

She had envisioned quite the grisly, tattered body with contorted limbs and bloodied teeth, much courtesies to the actual zombie-esque apocalypse that descended on her city just weeks ago. The mere thought of its tongue was so disgusting she almost turned tail and ran. But what she saw was completely not what she had expected to see.

The thing's chin was shattered of course, and there were countless cracks lining all the way up to its forehead. But what truly shocked her was the fact that it didn't even _have a face _in the first place. _Am I dreaming? _Its head was a smooth, metallic surface colored in a sheen of smoky white, and the limbs were a series of curvy metal bones interconnected by well-shaped balls held together by an unseen force. At the center of its cylindrical body was a small see through panel, and pale green light glowed eerily even as it dimmed little by little into nothingness.

Yang had never met something like this before, but she most certainly could tell what it was. Forged from molten and sculpted in alloy, an otherworldly being shaped in the image of Man before given life by Dust – it was a machine. It was an _automaton_. What were they doing here? How did she ever mistake this for a grisly, man-eating abomination? Correction, _when_ had it replaced Ruby Rose and pretended to be her in the first place?

As far as she could remember, she had taken her eyes off Ruby only once since she woke up, and that too was only for a second or two at most. Was it really possible for the automaton to have assumed its disguise and slotted between them in such a short time? Surely Ruby would've taken notice and done something about it? Unless…

"_No._ Stop thinking like that. What is wrong with me today?" Yang gave herself a slap and winced, "Maybe there's something wrong with this mist. Maybe I'm hallucinating. Maybe I haven't woken up yet from that fall – _ow! _Okay, not a dream."

Yang checked her gauntlets and made sure that every chamber was loaded. Under normal circumstances, she should wait at the same spot until Ruby came back for her. But inactivity suited her terribly, and she strongly suspected her heart literally wouldn't survive another jump scare like that. From now on she was going to punch first and ask questions later, and if she accidentally hit Ruby, well, she wouldn't hit her because the girl was more than capable of dodging out of the way.

* * *

_Oh right, the mist. I've totally forgotten about it because unlike our terrific adventure in Bamborsa, this one's almost normal. Excessive maybe, but just a fine haze of water vapor suspended in midair, and not some living black fog trying to stab you in the heart or grind you into a pulp. I have constant nightmares where I was literally rolling to death and can no longer sleep without a light. Sheesh!_

_Now then. Referring to Ruby's spare map, this passage we – or rather I, since she's not around – are trekking is once a large river winding down southeast a few hundred kilometers before finally meeting up with Seabrew, the third largest river in Remnant. Obviously it is all dried up now, and don't even ask how half the ground collapsed into a scary drop to hell, I have no idea and it's not important anyway._

_So what's the point of this geography lesson? Well, have you read 'Journey to the Center of Remnant'?_

_P.S.: I didn't by the way, but Ren did and he read it to Nora and Nora has a big mouth so ehhhhh punchline!_

* * *

Yang couldn't remember when, but at some point the earthen path had taken a sharp turn towards the left, and it wasn't until a minute or so that she realized something was off. The blonde stared hesitantly towards the sheer drop to her left, and even backtracked to that particular turning point just to be sure. Was it just her imagination, or was this path… _connected _to the other side of the cliff?

"This can't be right," Yang muttered to herself. But even as she trudged further down the path, the other side of the cliff began to close in rapidly, and Yang went back and forth three times to make sure that it wasn't just her sense of direction gone awry. Her astonishment grew larger as the walls indeed came closer with every step she took. _But that's impossible! _It could be that the river ended here, but the leather maps clearly showed that it goes all the way to Seabrew. So unless the map itself was wrong, or…

Yang resisted the vertigo and stared boldly towards the abyss. It was a crooked, pitch black thing shrouded in thin white air, and even in full daylight she could not see its bottom. Was it possible that deep down below, there's a crack or hole that went through the ground she's standing on? It certainly sounded likely. But that begged yet another question: if the two sides were connected it also meant that the ground _above_ was connected, then why on earth did Ruby purposely come down here in the first place? Was it because of a crowd or town she wanted to avoid? Or was it perhaps a similar case like the defective bridge?

The young girl looked up the steep slopes and imagined a sudden landslide. It was discomforting to say the least.

"Well, figuring this out won't help my situation anyway. Better move on."

She walked further. The mist seemed thicker than before, and the space beneath her knees were soon completely shrouded in white. She was forced to tread more carefully with one hand on the wall just in case the pathway had thinned where she couldn't see. But there were no accidents along the way, and soon she was met with a perfectly circular cave entrance stretching nearly ten meters in diameter. The young girl tensed immediately; its clearly artificial origin strongly reminded her about the creepy automaton she encountered not long ago. The eerie fog here was incredibly thick as it poured out from the inside, shrouding everything in the unknown like an invisible wall. Yang hesitated. She tried calling,

"Big sis! Ruby! Can you hear me? I'm here!"

Her voice resonated throughout the valley, but there was neither a reply nor a movement anywhere she could see. The blonde sighed and glared upwards. There was the horizon that promised safety and relief literally right above her head, and yet if she was to reach there directly she would have to climb what seemed to be a few hundred meters of rock formations. She had neither the gear nor the skill to take on such a feat, and her left arm seemed to ache at that brief flash of doing it the really, really, _really _hard way. _Nope, not doing that again in a million years. _

Reluctant she might be, it would seem that her only choice was to enter a cave again. _All this trouble just to get to the other side of a cliff – can't we just find a giant trampoline somewhere? _Grumbling inside her own mind, Yang fished out a torchlight and quickly flashed it around. She saw nothing. _Good. _After a moment's thought, she called upon her Semblance and let the flames spread throughout her entire body. Hiding was pointless against automata, and hopefully this was enough protection against an ambush.

Yang Xiao Long sucked in a deep breath, and did her best to relax the stuff shoulders. Then, she walked into the darkness.

* * *

Dark, cold, wet. _Too quiet_. That was her biggest impression as she marched through the tunnel feeling as if her shoes were pumped lead. The inner side of the tunnel was exactly the same as the entrance, concave and unusually smooth to touch. It's as if a giant laser beam had carved right through this mountain, and for some reason the thought soothed her not one bit in the slightest. She had tried lighting the path ahead but her fire wouldn't catch, and the glowing sticks were only barely visible five feet or less because of the mist, which in other words completely useless. She felt like a blind man, and worse her symptoms at the mines were surfacing into the open, little by little. She could not stay here. She quickened her feet.

Thankfully, the journey did not last long. Just fifteen minutes through what felt like the passage to Hell, Yang suddenly felt her surroundings lightened, and blinked her eyes multiple times to make sure. Her heart leaped even as she quickened her strides into a tempered run – learning her lessons and not let haste overcome her – and as she suddenly recalled her time at a night club, Yang put on a cocky smile and emerged into the opening ablaze in brilliant gold. She waited patiently for her eyes to adjust, and saw –

* * *

"Oh. My. God."

She was atop a hill, a small jut of protruding land with earthen staircases on each side leading down towards the ground. Strictly speaking, the land before her wasn't much different from the ones she'd passed; just another vast sea of lush green teeming with noisy wild life.

But there was a difference. To begin with, there were many concrete-and-steel highways streaking across the air. It wasn't an uncommon thing to see even in developing towns or half-abandoned cities, but Yang certainly had never seen them spiraling up and down, left and right, through and to _everywhere _like strings of a cocoon. Certainly no one could use a road looping in countless ovals so steep it might as well be vertical, or had any business driving through the clouds – _wait a second, those are mists; this is underground after all _– before dive bombing into a lake towards god-knows-where.

One particular road looped upon itself endlessly to form a strange shape, and as Yang gave up the details to stare at the bigger picture, she abruptly realized they joined together to form a beautiful building. More specifically it was an articulated pagoda, of densely packed stories and eight corner eaves stretching a humble fifty meters tall. With her lenses changed she tried looking at the world once more, and sure enough she began to spot low rising buildings above the flat lands, skyscrapers littered across the edges like watch towers, and even rows of neatly aligned strange bobs overseeing a barren landscape which purpose she would not understand until later.

That wasn't all. Before she had mentioned that the land was teeming with wild life, and there certainly were many considering the absolutely odd structure. She saw a pair of birds gliding through the air in unison, twirling loops around a road before vanishing around a corner. A herd of bull-like animals she'd never seen before grazed peacefully at a grassland a good few kilometers away, before seemingly noticed her gaze and trudged out of sight. A mountain rat even ran up to her feet and made some tiny squeaking noises, and when she tried bending down to touch it scurried away in an instant. All in all, these were what one would normally see in a protected zone. Nothing was out of the ordinary.

Or it would be, if the animals weren't all _automata. _Indeed, not a single creature she had seen thus far could be counted in any way as biological, and for some reason, she dared not say that they're not _s__entient__._ It was unbelievable. It was _beautiful_. She wasn't aware there were any Kingdoms in the world capable of such technology, much less bringing them to _life_ in such extraordinary fashion. How was this possible? How could _no one _know about such a marvel so close to civilization except a queer few like Ruby Rose? The stone ceilings were the only things that reminded her that this was underground, but it only served to confuse Yang even further. The last time she checked, the wall above the entrance was only about a hundred meters or more. This ceiling had looked much, _much _higher than that, and with the mist enough to be mistaken as the sky even from the hill she stood. She knew she had gone deep, but she hadn't gone _that _deep. Yang could no longer be sure whether she was still in Remnant, or a completely different world altogether.

One thing was certain, though. Yang held a fist to her chest and closed her eyes. She listened closely to her heartbeat, felt it raced faster and faster and faster until finally, she could no longer hold it in and _screamed_. The world fell silent, and even the wind seemed to stop blowing for a moment until she opened her eyes once more. For the longest of time she had just gone along with the flow, and even after taking the first step it never felt like the choice was hers to make.

But Ruby wasn't here, and this strange new world was right in front of her. She should be looking for an exit, she knows; she should avoid all contact with the strange creatures too, she _knows._ But _this_ was why she had left her beloved home and family; this was the _adventure _she had been dreaming about her entire life.

"I said I want to go to Atlas, and yes I still do," Yang whispered to herself, "But since I'm already here, it'll be a waste not to explore and have fun just a little longer, yeah?"

The brawler took a look at the staircases with an expression of disdain. Then she looked downhill over the edge and pondered for a second. Rock climbing was something she's poor at, sure, but _sky-running?_ Yang compared the hill with the skyscrapers in her memory and grinned like a wicked demon.

Then, she leaped.


	7. Chapter 6 - Heeelp

**Author's Note: So first, really sorry for the delay, I had a two full day training last week and couldn't write, not to mention that Monty's passing affected me quite a bit for a few days before I recovered.**

**I will be working on a separate One Shot for the RWBY Reddit MonCon themed 'Lie Ren' and 'Recovery', so do expect some delays on this fic since I have to complete that one before the 23rd.**

**As usual, enjoy the chapter, give me your thoughts, and stay sharp!**

* * *

**Day 16: Late Afternoon**

"_Steady, pretty_ – oh! Rrrg, umph!"

Yang fingered idly a bullet out of her pocket, and worked to plug it into the empty chamber of her gauntlets. The sweat on her finger meant that she nearly slipped, and with a soft curse she tried again with a stiffer grip, this time meeting with success. She breathed in, breathed out. Normally, the simple act of reloading was to her as natural as breathing. Not so much however, when hanging off a horizontal streetlight and vertically-slanted path reaching way up into the sky.

A long while after her epic landing – she couldn't tell time because none of her electronic devices were working – Yang had finally satisfied herself with harassing the local fauna ("Oooh, a mechanical rabbit! _I wonder how it looks inside – _wait! Come back! I was just joking!") and walked towards the closest highway she could find. She had three reasons: One, she wanted to get a better view of her surroundings. There were places she couldn't see because of the mist, and the highways were the closest tall structure she could find.

Two was that she needed to find Ruby, or at least attract her attention. Sure, she was somewhat _relishing _in this freedom she never got since they began their travels, but ultimately, the promise she made was to travel _with _her. Together. Maybe Ruby didn't really care about it, or she was secretly hoping that Yang, the unnecessary baggage would recognize her uselessness and drop off voluntarily. Her heart ached at the undeniable possibility. Yet Ruby had showed no such inclination throughout their journey – probably; she just couldn't fathom the girl's heart – and indeed it was just plain irresponsible to leave her without warning. Ruby might be capable of doing that, but not her. _Never _her.

The third reason was simple. It's tall, it's cool, and it's something totally out of the world. What _other _reason did she need really?

And that was how she came to hang on a horizontal lamp post few hundred meters off the ground, heaving deep breaths before boosting herself up in a powerful burst of strength and explosion. The combined force was just enough for her to reach the next overhead bar as she steadied herself immediately for the next jump, and then some more. It was the only way, for this particular highway tilted at one point a terrifying negative slope that Yang had zero confidence of climbing without a full mountaineering gear or a pair of angel wings at least. A single slipup there would mean the end, whereas her current method would at least guarantee her a thin bar that she could use to break her fall or more.

_Fifteen more to go. What a chore, _Yang thought wryly, _thankfully I don't mind monkey bars, but this must rank as one of the most dangerous shit I've done for the year. Voluntary ones at least._

She tossed the random thoughts out of her head, and focused on pushing.

* * *

Unbeknownst to Yang, a pair of automated fox eyes was watching her from beneath the countless green canopies. Unbeknownst to Yang, ten pairs of automated rodent eyes were watching her from a faraway hill. Unbeknownst to Yang at the time, _every pair _of automata eyes were watching her with rapt and unified attention; calculating, dissecting, _pondering_ every packet of information before transmitting into storage.

And then there was one.

* * *

The first thing the ecstatic blonde noticed upon standing on top of the world, strangely enough, was not the world itself. Instead, it was the roads.

From a distance they looked just like your everyday highway, complete with functioning holographic streetlights and energy-based traffic barriers. But these were different. To begin with, there were neither traffic signs nor road markings that she could identify anywhere. To an extent she had already expected this, for these twisted paths were obviously built for a purpose that had nothing to do with human transportation.

"What are these… tracks…?"

But it seemed that her assumptions weren't entirely correct. Even before she began her ascent she had noticed that there were many rows of straight, parallel lines etched deep in the concrete surface. Deep as a drain, occasionally these channels would intersect with each other by horizontal lines, crisscrossing in a seemingly random yet organized way that reminded Yang about train tracks, or that boring school exercise where she was trained to build an electric circuit. The patterns looked somewhat similar, so maybe this was a conductor of sorts? Obviously it wasn't conducting electricity, or maybe the time wasn't right, but…

Yang gave up the line of thought immediately. Mysteries were often attractive, but she had no intentions to delve deep knowing that she had neither the knowledge nor the incentive to unravel them. Also, there's just no need to stress herself unnecessarily and lose hair, dammit! The wind blew hard yet soothingly against her cheeks, and Yang sat herself at the edge snuggly while admiring the greeneries. _By Remnant, was that a pack of silver wolves roaming through the plains? I need to take a picture NOW! _With practiced ease she fished out her scroll from her backpack and –

"Oh god damn it! Does it still not work here?" Yang growled in frustration before stuffing it back into the bag. She supposed it was time to finish her real business up here anyway, so she pulled out a flare gun and fired one up into the sky. The red glow looked magnificent from here, "That should work, I suppose. Now all I need to do is wait –"

After all the bombshells and knockouts she had experienced for the past few weeks, Yang had to admit she wasn't actually _too_ surprised. But it still wasn't any less terrifying when a powerful force knocked her right over the edge, and she suddenly found herself falling through the air screeching like a baby, "_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH – GAH!?"_

The brawler's shriek came to an abrupt halt as she felt something sharp sinking into her shoulders, followed by a powerful pulling sensation so excruciating Yang nearly fainted even as she realized that she was no longer falling. Blinking through the tears Yang glared hatefully upwards, only to find perched above her shoulders the most humongous bird – an actual, metal-layered eagle with gilded feathers and piercing eyes – she had ever seen in her life. Hissing strange pops of gas and flapping airborne with a pair of steely wings that defied all common sense, it began gliding towards a certain direction with a speed that would've been totally awesome, if Yang wasn't hurting like someone had lit her flesh on fire. She struggled a little, all the while cursing like a sailor as the unbelievably sharp steel cut through her flesh like wet paper,

"Fuck _off, _you motherfucking sonuvabitch or I'll tear you a new one in the – Aggghh! Let go of me! _Arghh!_"

It was useless. Unless she was ready to tear off entire chunks of her shoulders she could not escape its vice-like grip, and she could not employ even a quarter of her real strength from that most awkward position. She could burn the damn thing's legs which would've been totally satisfying, but her flames weren't nearly as powerful as her Da's, and she did not relish the thought of having molten steel dripping on either her body or her hair. Eventually, Yang gave up. Whatever its purpose was, it did not seem like it wanted to kill her, or it could've just done nothing after it knocked her off the highway. In that case, all she needed to do was to turn that gut of fear beneath her stomach into resolve, and settle in for what might be a long, long run –

– _Not. _She felt it let go, felt a rush of pure panic as she tried to grab its legs and _missed, _then just screamed all the way to the ground as the roaring wind rolled her into an uncontrollable spin, "OH GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD I'M GOING TO KILL YOU YOU BLOODY BIRD RRRRAAAAAGHHH!"

Perhaps it was because this was the third time Yang stumbled through the air in a row that she managed to retain her ability to think. Yang fired off a round to slow down her rotation. As she looked to nose dive straight into a tree trunk, the girl scowled deeply before pumping herself just a fraction upwards, narrowly passing through a tight gap above with barely inches to spare. She couldn't help but squeal at the narrow escape. _Wait a second – this is actually fun! _A genuine smile finally broke through the angry mask she tried to wear, and even the wounds on her shoulders didn't feel nearly as painful as she whooped, jumped and _soared _above the canopies with each burst of her shotgun. This was a whole different thrill as compared to diving off buildings – it was as if she was really _flying!_

Eventually her momentum slowed, and the pull of gravity was too strong one last time that Yang finally relented and dipped reluctantly into a nearby tree. The tree branches were just soft enough for her to crash at the right angle, and she even managed to land on her feet with a quiet thump – not even needing the roll, which was normally a mandatory move to break the fall – and creaked open a wide grin. She totally wouldn't mind doing it again, although definitely without the rude liftoff and pointy things stabbing into her flesh.

"Damn that stupid bird," Yang muttered while brushing a finger against the shredded clothing, "And just who's going to pay for this? This is a custom made suit!… Screw it, I'm just gonna camp here and wait for –"

"Heeelp."

Now then, once again there were a few reasons why Yang did not respond to the pleas immediately. One, she had not seen a single human soul since she came to this place. Everything but the plants was automata, and even the insects were not an exception to the rule. To hear a human cry here was an anomaly, which led to her second reason: A trap. Plainly speaking, it was just too much of a coincidence for this to happen just _seconds _after the eagle had dumped her here. All these practically screamed of an ulterior motive, one that might not give a damn about Yang's safety considering how she arrived here, and despite being a thrill seeker Yang did love her own life so very much. As for the third reason –

"Heeelp."

The blonde pressed a palm to her forehead and groaned. That was it; the _tone _of the voice. She had never heard such a flat and listless and bland and _fake _cry for help, with not a single tinge of panic or tearing or fear or _anything _that made up, well, a cry for help. Like what the hell they didn't even _try. _And what on earth's with that absolutely unnecessary drag on the E alphabet? Was this a foreigner thing? Even a _hello _would sound better, even a _goat bleating _wouldn't sound so _boring._ _Okay, this is driving me nuts for absolutely no reason, _Yang thought to herself as she began to turn and walk slowly away, _you heard nothing, girl. It's just your imagination; it's just the blowing wind –_

"Heeelp."

"Hahaha. What an impressive tree I see over there! I'm just gonna –"

"Heeelp."

"Just gonna –"

"Heeelp."

"I –"

"_Heeelp."_

"_OH WOULD YOU JUST SHUT UP!?"_

Yang shuddered the ground with an angry slam of the foot, and with bloody red eyes she began stomping right towards the space from whence the voice came from. She didn't care if it was a trap or an automaton or a Demon _GAH whatever, _she was going to _wring _its neck and crush the throat and pummel the brain to bits before burning _everything _into a crisp. With barely controlled anger, Yang pulled away the thick bush blocking her path and –

"Oh! _Sal-u-ta-tions!_"

And that was how she met Penny, the only girl in Remnant she dreaded more than Ruby herself.

* * *

(Day XX, Current Time. 3:34 a.m.)

Yang suddenly stopped typing into her scroll. Her face scrunched up for a second looking as if she'd just eaten something really, really sour, and her fingers suddenly trembled at the memory of something she'd trade her life to forget. The blonde sighed at the sudden bout of depression and crawled up to her feet. It was time for a break. She took a step towards the nearby bush and –

"Yang."

"! #$%^&amp;?!" she jumped. Very damn nearly screamed. From the darkness emerged a pair of yellow eyes, and Blake stepped towards her mouthing a hint of curiosity,

"What's wrong? You seem… excited?"

"Ohh! Hahaha, uh, it's nothing," Yang wiped off a bead of cold sweat off her forehead and laughed nervously, "Anyway, what is it?"

"It's your turn to watch. But if you are unwell, I can wake her –"

"No! Nonono, I'm fine, I can do it," the blonde forced a smile onto her face and said, "And c'mon, don't give Ruby a hard time, okay? We're all in the same group now, so just… try and get along."

For a few quiet seconds Blake stared directly into Yang's violet eyes, eliciting an unseen, forceful pressure that took all her self-control not to fidget like a child. Finally, the black-haired woman relaxed and said,

"Sure."

Yang blinked, and she was gone in an instant. The blonde glanced backwards to see Blake slowly lowering herself beside a tree bark at least fifty steps away. Theoretically she understood that Blake manipulated the shadows to instantly 'teleport' herself to another location, but it was still bizarre no matter how many times she'd seen it. It seemed that with every addition this team was getting more superhuman than ever, and she felt even more depressed knowing that she was bogging down the whole team. Still, the sudden interruption had taken the edge off her trauma, and for that she was grateful.

"Better not waste the firewood then, the night is still young…" Yang muttered to herself silently, and went about her business.


	8. Chapter 7 - It Was The Other Way Around

**Author's Note: That went far smoother than I initially thought - wrote this in less than 2 days! So I guess I sometimes still have it yay!**

**That being said, please expect a delay in the next chapter since Chinese New Year will begin in less than 3 days, or February 19th to be exact. I will still write, but because I'll be travelling to places _where-the-light-don't-reach _\- I mean, without wireless access, so uploading may turn out to be a problem. The last time I checked, mobile phone makes terrible Wifi hotspots, so.**

**On a side note that I really wanted to say a long time ago but keep forgetting, Ruby suck at knife throwing because of her scythe wielding skills. Since she's used to twist her wrists, whenever she throws a knife she falls back to the same habit and shoots in a totally different direction from where she aimed. A little fun trivia for you guys and gals to know.**

**Finally, the next chapter is going to be a... yes, exactly. _That._**

* * *

**Day 16, Early Evening**

The culprit turned out to be a normal girl with curly orange hair and a pink bow at the back of her head. She wore quite the old-fashioned blouse with short feminine overalls, as well as a black and green collar to match an equal colored pair of stocking. Despite looking a little nerdy with freckles dinting the cheeks amplifying the impression, Yang noticed that her eyes were orbs of bright green alit with delight and intelligence. The girl by all means looked a perfectly normal adolescent one would easily find on the streets.

Or she would be, if she wasn't lying flat on the ground, unmoving and staying stiff as a board. If only she didn't lift a hand and wave it back and forth like a lever. If only she didn't stay exactly where she is, but still looked up and spoke in an overtly bright tone,

"Hello! My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"… Uh, hi."

"And a good day to you too! What is your name?"

"I'm… Yang. Yang Xiao Long."

"That is a weird name! I believe it is not in the universal language, correct? Scanning database… are you Chinese? Hello again, Sunny Little Dragon! Or is it in the _Hokkien _slang, Sunny _Crazy_ Dragon?"

Yang had never regretted telling a stranger her name so much in her life, "God, no. Please just call me Yang. Also… do you want to get up?"

The strange girl glanced at herself for a moment before smiling, "So I do!" she leaps back onto her feet in a perfect arc and raised a hand towards her, "Hello! My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"You've… already said that," she must have set a new record in Yang's-most-pauses-ever-in-a-conversation. Something about this girl just didn't do it for her. That strange way of speech aside, this Penny girl looked to be pure trouble, and already her instinct was calling to get away from the orange head as soon as possible. But despite that sentiment, she still returned a handshake hesitantly and asked, "So I heard your… call. For help. But you don't seem hurt anywhere."

"Oh!" there was actual surprise in those bright green eyes, and for a brief instant they flashed towards the ground. What did it mean? "You are correct, I am not hurt! But a Companion attacked me earlier, which is why I called for help!"

"A companion? You mean you're not alone?" Yang's voice held a grain of hope. So far she hadn't seen anyone, but if there were other humans settling here somewhere then, she might find Ruby there _and _ditch this girl all at once, "Well, barring the attacker, is there anyone you know? Your friends? Maybe I can bring you to them –"

"I do not comprehend the question. What do you mean by my friends?" the sudden interruption cut off Yang's words abruptly, and after a second's ponder Penny's eyes lit up, "Oh! No, I am not referring to 'companion' as in its general definition. I am referring to _Companion_, as in the _nickname _I label Synthetic Artificial Agent Sentient Basic version Three-O-O-One."

… _Okay that was _not _the answer I expected__, _"I'm sorry… what?"

"I will repeat: Oh! No, I am not referring to 'companion' as –"

"No no no _stop,_" Yang waved both hands frantically and in exasperation, "I'm not asking you to repeat everything! I mean… What is Companion? And explain it in _simpler _terms; with _examples _if you can!"

"Ah, I understand!" Penny nodded with a smile that registered none of Yang's distress, and turned ninety degrees towards her left. She walked towards a nearby bush and bent downwards to pick up a small and strange-looking thing, and when Penny brought it to the light Yang identified the object to be a beetle. A dark-colored, steel-plated curved horn beetle to be exact.

"This is Companion," Penny said brightly, "Category 'Bug', Emulated Life Form 'Hercules', and in simplified term, is what you call an automaton."

* * *

This looked to be a long day, no matter how Yang tried to look at it.

"I… think I get what you mean," the blonde rubbed a circle around her forehead, hoping to staunch the beginnings of a headache that would probably not subside anytime soon, "By 'companion', you're actually referring to the automatons. So you're saying that an automaton attacked you here, right?"

"That is correct!" Penny gave Yang a thumbs up, and all Yang wanted to give in return was a facepalm, "A Companion, Category 'Grimm', Emulated Life Form 'Nevermore', fell on me from the sky and attacked me. I pushed it away, but as a result fell to the ground and decided to call for help."

That wasn't something she could ignore. The blonde looked at the smiling girl in disbelief, and for the first time since the start of the conversation, Yang grew serious, "There are automatons here that emulate the _Grimm? _Is the maker of these automata _insane? _The Grimm doesn't even count as a life form! And a _Nevermore _attacked you? You're lucky to be alive!"

"Some say," Penny blinked once and twice before replying, "Some say that geniuses are often misunderstood. The Grimm is an Unclassified Dangerous Entity that has shown clear intelligence by their attraction to negative human emotions and thinking ability. Hence, it is not implausible to theorize that the Grimm has a will, and thus form the very basis of a life form."

Yang stared at Penny as the latter smiled innocently. Was it her imagination, but did the air turn cold there for a second? "Uh, okay, sure. I… didn't mean it quite that seriously, was just ranting because it complicates things quite a bit, because you know, if there's a Nevermore then god knows what else –"

The blonde frowned for a second, then another, "Wait. Did you say you were attacked by a Nevermore?"

"Incorrect. I was attacked by a Nevermore type automaton."

"Fine, fine – the point is, do you know how I come here?"

"I request clarification on the meaning behind the question."

"I flew here," Yang said slowly, as she nonchalantly stepped a foot backwards, "Or to be precise, I was _flown _here by an eagle automaton (mostly). It was an involuntary and painful experience, sure, but beside the point."

Yang grinned fiercely as she homed in for the kill, "You said a Nevermore attacked you, and you cried for help. But as you know a Nevermore is quite large, like _giant _large and _noisy_, so I fail to see how I can possibly miss such an _obvious _target when I was in the sky. I think _you're lying to me_," Yang raised a hand backwards, ready to fire at the slightest signs of retaliation while snarling, "Why? Who are you? Wait a sec – _What _are you? I've seen a humanoid automaton before I come here. Are you –"

"Yang."

At once her fists shook a fraction. Before she knew it an unsettling chill crept up the warrior's spine like a boa, and she nearly obeyed her basest instinct to leap straight into battle or run away. What on earth was this pressure, and where did it come from? Even the rustling grass seemed to hide terrors best left unknown. Yang forcibly capped her cool under a lid as she observed the unmoving girl closely. The same bright smile that painted a foolish impression now felt unimaginably eerie, and when Penny finally spoke up she tensed for the inevitable,

* * *

"You are mistaken."

Was she doing what she thought she's doing?

"… What?"

"I have not lied to you. Every word I told you is the truth."

"That's _bullshit!_" Yang exclaimed without thinking; did the girl still think to lie even now? "You expect me to believe a Nevermore actually attacked you?! Don't –"

"A Nevermore-like automaton definitely attacked me. But it is a newborn Grimm the automaton is based on."

For a second there, the blonde's mind went full blank. _What did she just say?_ It was a blind spot; since young she had heard many tales of giant Nevermores descending upon villages and devouring human beings in a single gulp – which was a fact, true – but she had completely forgotten that not all Grimm start off as a gigantic monster. Most don't, in fact, and in the case of a low level Nevermore –

"I calculate that it is about 1.615263 meters wide measuring from wing to wing," Penny opened her hands wide as if to make the comparison, but seemed to realize that they weren't wide enough before putting them down, "It must have been waiting on the trees. It swooped down really quick and surprised me, forcing me to the ground. But I managed to push it away in the end, and called for help."

"But – but! There should still be some noise!" Yang argued with a growing sense of guilt and desperation, "And uh, right! Your clothes, they aren't damaged at all!"

"There can be noise, I agree. But a forest is also noisy, and the crickets will have muffled them out. It happened very quickly after all. Estimated event time around 5.667 seconds," By pure coincidence, the forest started to grow noisier as the mechanized insects joined together to make a raucous chorus, and Yang was starting to feel really, really, _really _embarrassed at her own overreactions. But Penny didn't seem intend to end the humiliation any time soon as she continued, "As for my clothes, I am embarrassed to admit that my father is a very loving man who gave me this full body length, 99% Dust-made, synthetically composed battle suit that is at the same time, also meant to be 'cute'."

Yang's jaw fell to the ground, and she literally forgot to pick it up. Dust is a miracle material that could be converted into many things – even toothpastes! – and make the impossible possible, and among Hunters one of the most valuable and expensive products they could buy was the combat suit. A common clothing coated with 0.01% faint blue Dust could withstand most tearing and discoloration. A combat suit has carefully engineered Dust fibers woven into the fabric to protect its wearer, and for beginner Hunters-in-training was more resilient than even their own Aura.

The more Dust there is, the more powerful and resilient the clothing become, and beyond a certain percentage a skilled Hunter could even harness the power of Dust from their clothing and utilize them for many purposes (although of course, it would have to be rewoven after use). It was also incredibly flexible, neigh indestructible above a certain threshold, and with the right programming could even perform automated functions such as self-repair and spell casting. The absolute maximum percentage of Dust woven combat suit a common Hunter was allowed to buy was 3%, and those skilled enough to utilize this advantage could potentially take down an _army_ of Hunterswithout. It was a reason why only fully trained and carefully selected professional Hunters were permitted to carry equipment that was beyond the standards, for power corrupts all.

Needless to say, Dust woven combat suit was expensive. _Very _expensive. So expensive that Yang could dump in her entire bank and just barely buy a 3% combat suit which colors and style she _disliked _entirely. But anyway, back from the stray thoughts: she supposed she could believe that the young girl got a Dust woven suit as a present seeing how… _unique _the girl was, but a _99% Dust woven combat suit? Oh wait, this must be –_

"– Good joke there buddy, you totally got me. 99 percent? _Ahahaha_ that is so _funny!_" Yang laughed raucously, perhaps a bit more on the shrilly side that she'd care to admit, "Anyway, I believe you. Please forgive me for everything. I was so wrong to doubt you and, I mean, you don't seem to need my help, so, uh, well, wonderful! So uh, okay, I guess I'll get back to my own business and say goodbye –"

"Please wait."

A cold hand grabbed onto her wrist, and Yang damn near rocketed into the sky again. It seemed like she was doing that a lot lately. Yang turned to see a smiling Penny directly in front of her – _when and how did she get here so quickly!? _– who said,

"… Once again, I must emphasis that I did not lie to you, but I can see from your body language that you will not relent on at least one misconception. I am in harmony with that. However, I must now request you to escort me to the Cemetery."

Yang squeaked while trying not-so-subtly to pull back her wrist, and failing, "Wait – what? Me? Escort _you? _And did I just hear you say a _cemetery? What?"_

Penny's eyes sparkled intelligently, and suddenly the blonde felt like a trapped mouse, "You have come with the intention to aid me, but it turns out to be unrequired. I am 90 percent sure you are feeling unfulfilled." "Well actually, I don't –" "In which case, I have a primary objective in mind that will satiate that need. Usually I won't travel far, and the Companions are mostly docile except a selected few. But there may be more dangers ahead, and although I must go, I am fearful for the safety of my being. So please, do bring me to the Cemetery, Yang Xiao Long."

"Just to be completely sure, and I don't mean to be rude or anything," Yang mounted one last resistance towards freedom and stuttered, "This ce-cemetery place – is it an actual cemetery, or is it another nickname you label to confuse the stars out of people? Because you know, I'm kinda busy and lost and my frie –"

"Every once a year, I will visit that place," Penny bowed her head sadly, for the first time losing her smile and looking downcast more than she ever did before, "I was trapped here for a long time, but I am not always alone. A long, long while ago, my father and I came here by accident, and to protect me he ultimately lost his life to grievous wounds. I may have grown unfamiliar to many customs, but I still remember some important things. I am going to the Cemetery… to visit my father's graves."

It was then Yang knew she had lost – utterly and completely.


	9. Chapter 8 - Devil Wears Green

**Author's Notes: Holy wow, Malaysia is _really _hot these days. Down with a terrible cough for 5 days straight, although I guess I should count my lucky stars for avoiding a fever - really felt like it was going to breakout this morning. Hence the few hours of delay, sorry!**

* * *

This world might be tiny, but it was uniquely beautiful in a way many lands above could not match. On one side lush green painted landscapes in shapes of canopies and running plains, with the occasional wild flowers and odd plants to embellish many colors. On the other stood a steady foundation of stone and steel as the many roads weaved together into many sculptures of structures and buildings; an impossible parody of modern cities that was free and artistic. But perhaps the most amazing thing of it all was the preservation of their states, that a clear line between science and nature was somehow maintained without ever invading the other's territory. And of course, living among them a whole _ecosystem _of automata.

It was an impossibility, a kind of harmony that should never have existed. Even after so many hours, Yang Xiao Long could hardly contain her spirits as she tread quite literally the middle line between two drastically environments, feeling as if she had both halves of the world right within her palms.

"Is there anything amiss, Yang? Computation suggests that the curves of your smile and total time maintained is rapidly approaching the 'Creepy' level."

… Well, it was a good ten seconds of delusion before _someone _shattered it into a million shards of glass. A piercing emerald eye met hers even as Penny the mood breaker maintained a perfectly straight stride at the front, and Yang pulled away from the gaze only to mutter a weak, "Nothing." The former seemed to interpret it as a display of boredom and assured confidently,

"Do not worry, Yang. Excluding all unpredictable risks we shall arrive at the Cemetery in T-minus twenty minutes and twenty four seconds."

"That is… reassuring."

"Are you tired? We have walked for an hour, and I observe that your breathing has grown a bit heavier. Do you want to rest? Or do you want me to carry your bags for you? As I've said before, I may not be a fighter, but I _am _strong."

Yang quickly shook her head and replied, "It's fine; I'm just –" _starting to feel emotionally bankrupt and leaking rapidly on the moral side. I can't believe I miss Ruby's silence, _"– We can rest once we reach the cemetery. I don't want to run into any more automatons if I can help it."

Penny curled her lips and turned back towards the front, "We are treading the borderline between discipline and wilderness; the probability that an automaton will come here is less than 5 percent. But you are correct, we shall opt for safety over comfort."

The duo fell back into silence. It was a stranger's kind of silence, one Yang would usually blow away in an instant, but for some reason today she just couldn't find the right kind of opening. At least Ruby was sociable when they first met each other. Was this a sign that she was _slipping? _Surely not!

But Yang knew inside what was affecting her. It was guilt. Guilt that she had acted roughly towards Penny simply because she was annoyed by the circumstances that joined them together. Guilt that she felt an indescribable dislike towards the girl's strange personality, even though it was purely subjective and not really Penny's fault. In fact, if her story was true then it was no wonder Penny had turned out so strange, with no one but neutrally-aligned machines to keep her company, and she actually _accused _her to be inhuman simply because she spoke like one. _I'm a horrible scumbag, aren't I?_

Her biggest sin of them all though, was that Yang could not trust Penny. The orange head had shown nothing but friendliness towards her, and the girl had not pressed Yang for anything at all except this little mission. In fact, she took to great lengths to earn her trust by revealing her Semblance – super strength it would seem, awakened by accident when she was younger – even though Yang was the guest and intruder of this realm. It made her feel guilty. It made her want to return the favor, or at least give the green dressed companion a token of trust.

And yet Yang still could not trust Penny. She could not explain it logically; it was an instinctual feeling backed up by several long, muddy doubts that she had missed the best timing to clear up. Was it a coincidence the eagle drop her so near to Penny? How did the girl know that Yang was there in the first place? Was she really untrained? Even the sad past she told was too vague. Was it because it was too painful, or was because it was just a hastily compounded lie? She knew it was a terribly insensitive thought, but she just could not shake away the suspicion from her mind. They've barely known each other for an hour after all; perhaps it's just safer to keep the orange head in the dark than to talk carelessly.

* * *

"_It's not efficient."_

"_What?"_

"_Because it's a waste of energy," Ruby waved a hand carelessly, "Trading is one thing, and we also need to appear normal or we'll attract attention, but otherwise I don't want to spend focus on pointless things when a Demon may just be around the corner._

* * *

Abruptly, the blonde's footsteps grinded to a halt. It was barely more than a second, the scraping sounds restarting so quick that it might as well be nothing. And yet something definite had changed within herself, for Yang could find no other explanation to her own sudden blurt out,

"… Hey Penny."

"Yes, Yang?"

"You've been here for a time, right? Do you… want to hear some stories about the land above? It will be a great way to pass the time."

The young girl turned her head around again, her eye glinting with just the barest hint of surprise. But that dissolved immediately into excited claps as Penny laughed happier than she'd ever seen her,

"That will be great! Please, tell me _everything_ you can!"

* * *

They arrived at exactly the time Penny had predicted, and when Yang gazed upon the scenery she let loose a breath of awe and wonderment.

It was the second time she laid eyes upon the gorgeous sight. Tall highways joined to form rows and rows of rectangular-shaped protrusion hovering across humongous pieces of land, and unlike the roads before these were completely padded by steel plates and gleamed a piercing silver. _They are gravestones. _Yang realized with ever growing stupefaction that there might actually be ten thousand souls buried underneath the ground,and the_ c_ountless lumps of soils littered the grassless flat land – some unusually large and small – only solidified that belief further. Sure enough, the orange-haired girl said,

"We are at the Cemetery. My father's grave is just up ahead."

"Penny, is it just me or are these all…?"

"Affirmative. As a machine this happens rarely, but these are the graves of the automatons that have reached the end of their lives."

"But there must be _thousands _of them at least! If I remember correctly robotic technology was introduced only about fifty years ago in Atlas; there can't possibly be so many dead automatons already! This isn't even Atlas!"

"It is possible. These automatons are set to have the same natural lifespan as their living counterparts, and fifty years is enough to fit in two full generations and more. Even if the results of my observation is wrong, this _is_ a very strange world… won't you agree?"

Yang nodded after some personal musing. Penny's occasional insight to this world had proved to be correct, and there was no reason to doubt those words. Still, she couldn't resist asking,

"How do you know these things? Actually, how long have you been here in the first place?"

Penny turned to smile at Yang again, but the latter distinctly felt that it was laden with sadness, "A few years. Enough to learn many things, you can say. Ah! There it is!"

Yang chased the direction where Penny pointed, and sure enough she spotted the only grave that was out-of-place, not only because it was the only one with a tombstone at its head but also that there was a cut of carnation placed on top of the grave. It was a beautiful hue of pink that was almost red. Etched on the tombstone were the words,

"Here lies – a great scientist and a greater man but most of all,

The greatest father one can hope for.

John ()

2048 – 2081"

Yang noticed that the person's last name was scratched away deliberately, almost as if it was too important to be revealed even on his own gravestone, but she said nothing. Penny pulled a single white lily from her sleeves and replaced the beautiful carnation. Then, she sat down beside the tombstone and touched a gentle hand against it, seemingly conversing countless words inside her heart with her deceased parent. It would be twenty minutes before the young girl finally woke up from her reverie, but Yang was solemnly quiet and respectful throughout the sacred moment, not wanting to disturb Penny in any way. It reminded her all too strongly of her own mother, and that during the next Qing Ming, she would likely not be able to visit her grave because of her adventure.

The thought was sobering to say the least.

"Yang… Yang!"

The blonde snapped out of her thoughts as a gentle hand pulled at her tucked in wrist, "Oh. Sorry. Is it done?"

"Well, yes, normally this is where I end our little chitchat," Penny nodded honestly, "But I promised my father to show him the new thing you taught me. Please give me a stick of incense, will you?"

"Uh, what?" at first Yang thought she heard her wrongly. Then, she wished herself deaf.

"I will repeat: Please give me a stick of incense, will you? I will like to try praying to my father the Chinese way of worship."

"_What? _No! I mean, I don't carry any with me, and who brings incense anyway when they're backpacking the world?"

"That is strange. I detect a… sweet smoky scent from the third right pocket of your brown bag pack which is neither gunpowder nor campfire. Are you sure you don't carry any?"

"That's impossible – wait, this is _Ruby's _bag. You _have _to be mistaken. Give me a second to check – OH MY GOD SHE DOES HAVE INCENSE! WHY?"

Somewhere someplace, on a land probably not too far away, an extremely miffed Ruby Rose sneezed.

* * *

Disclaimer: the author of this diary has no idea whether Ruby _actually_ sneezed, but she sure as hell _did _have some incense inside her bag, so, yeah. Don't ask why either, the author of this diary too scared to ask. Oh, and just in case this falls in the wrong hands, the author of this diary is most definitely _not _Yang Xiao Long.

* * *

In the end, although Yang was somewhat averse about using her partner's items without permission, she could not refuse Penny's heartfelt pleas and relented. She much preferred it to the other suggestion anyway; a direct result of their careless conversation on cultural activities during their short walk ("I understand your complication. In that case, may I suggest that we perform a lion dance? We don't have a costume, but I believe your hair may work as a partial substitute and –" _"No. _Just… no._"_), and while there were much mixed feelings watching Penny swinging wildly the smoking stick on top of her head like she's performing a voodoo ritual, it was… okay. Her actions weren't all that different from toast a cup of great alcohol with the past; they were all a sign of love. They were all _human._

* * *

_And she did, eventually. After one, two, five, thirty minutes of deep breathing and intense self-criticism, Yang eventually felt like herself again and finally climbed back to her own feet. Throughout the ordeal, Ruby said nothing and did nothing at all. _

_She just watched._

* * *

"Remnant to Yang! You are quite prone to daydreaming, Yang Xiao Long. May I suggest a proven prescription to this sickness?"

Yang jerked out of her reverie, again. The orange head had carefully stuck the three burning incense on the ground with the white lily in perfect symmetry, and she now had a hand cautiously placed onto Yang's shoulder. The blonde gave Penny a bitter smile before lightly tapping at her wrist and said,

"I'm fine. Thanks for caring. Man, if only a certain someone will take a lesson or two from you…"

"Hmm," Penny cocked her head to the left before saying, "May I be prudent to assume that this 'certain someone' you're referring to as a person named 'Ruby'?"

Yang immediately tensed up at the mention, but quickly relaxed, "You're right. She is my f… partner. We came down here because she's terrified of the public, and there's apparently a shortcut or something that will lead us to the other side of the cliff."

"That is strange," Penny said with her eyes glancing aimlessly rightwards as she performed a mental checkup, "Referring to my database, it will seem that this part of the region is connected by a Vytal toll highway since fifty years ago. Whatever shortcut you may find here, surely it cannot beat just crossing the bridge?"

"I know right!? Just to make it clear, _I'm_ fine just paying the toll and crossing the damn bridge, but apparently we have a need to avoid any public eye as much as possible, and thank Remnant she didn't suggest something as crazy as circumventing the river by its head or something," Yang knew that she shouldn't talk too much lest she said something forbidden, but once the rant began it could not be stopped,

"But how is coming here any better!? Just look at this place! It's _huge _and it's _alien _and filled to the brim with _automatons _that, yes, seems harmless, but who knows when they'll change their mind! It's not like this place isn't nice, mind you; this'll make one helluva tourist spot if a billionaire tycoon suddenly decides to build a resort here or something, but the point is! _This is not the best place to cross a simple gap and now we're separated and I don't know where she is and I'm completely – fucking – LOST!"_

The last sentence came out in a barely restrained scream, and she didn't need a mirror to know that her Semblance must be out of control, again. Not the best of behaviors at a cemetery, surely, but recently the mere thought of Ruby just filled her with so much _rage_ that she needed this outlet more desperately than she thought possible, needed anyone _who's not a cold freaking statue _that she could talk with even if they couldn't understand her sentiment.

But she was wrong, "I… understand. You must care for her so very much."

Yang looked up in surprise. A warm hand clasped gently against her own shoulders, and Penny smiled lightly, "Do you think I don't? The only love I've known is my father's, but I dare say yours isn't too different, or at least one of the same. In the case of two partners of the same sex, I believe your love with Ruby falls under the category of 'friendship'. Is that correct?"

"Friendship, you say? Maybe. I don't know, that no longer seems like the right word to me," Her excitement fell as suddenly as it surged, and the blonde sank to her feet and said tiredly, "In fact, I believe we are more like… allies who happened to get along the same adventure. That's all."

"But why do you think that way? You do care for her, right?"

Yang chuckled darkly, "Maybe I did. But is that really all that's need to define a friendship? I wanted to know her better. I tried talking to her. I helped her in any way I can, and I try to tolerate her quirks while giving it the best I have. But what did she do? Even now I am very grateful towards her, and I certainly would not have made it this far without Ruby leading me every step along the way.

But in the end it doesn't change the fact that everything she did was only for her own self. _Never_ for me. The fact is no relationship can be nurtured by one side alone, and Ruby simply refuses to show any effort to maintain this bond we have – I'm no longer sure it's even there in the first place – and I'll have to be a saint, a fool and a donkey to keep trying knowing how it's going to end."

There was a moment of stinging silence as both girls sat on top of dirty soil, careless about their attire and pondering emotions too conflicted to resolve. Yang felt spent, exhausted. Usually a confession would relax a person's mind especially when the listener was a stranger, but all she felt was a strange emptiness too close to despair.

Once again it was Penny who broke the barrier and asked Yang an unexpected question,

"Does that mean you are no longer friends with Ruby?"

"I don't know," Yang raised both arms sarcastically, "Certainly we're not the kind of friends _I _thought we are."

"Hmm. If she's not your friend, then is she your _enemy?_" Penny stuck her face closer while staring directly into the blonde's eyes. The orange-haired girl held a firm lip that was unusually serious, but Yang laughed it off easily,

"No, of course not! I mean sure we don't get along, but she saved my Da's life! I can't ever think of her as an enemy! As for Ruby herself, well," an imaginary red eye glowered, and Yang said softly, "She has much bigger things to worry than little me here."

"Hmmm," Penny held a finger to her chin and sank into unusual silence. The blonde watched the freckle-faced girl amusedly until finally, she spoke, "I don't have many friends, so I must admit I am inexperienced. Do you mind if I ask a few questions to clarify my thoughts?"

"Uh, sure, go on," Yang didn't particularly care to continue the gloomy subject, but Penny seemed unusually invested for some reason. She thought she could spare a bit more time for this lonely girl in this lonely world. Speaking of which, did she ever ask Penny why she did never leave this place…?

"You and Ruby are not friends. Or rather, that friendship has expired because Ruby refuses to uphold her end of the contract. Is that accurate?"

"A _contract? _Well, I guess that's not wrong, since there's a saying that marriage is a financial contract too…"

"But you and Ruby are not enemies either. Neither of you feel the need to harm each other physically. Is that accurate?"

"Not really. Well, okay, sometimes, but that's only when she pissed me off real bad and even then, I'm much better off punching a tree than her. Not to mention she's so fast, I can't even _touch _her," Yang snorted in self-derision. However Penny barely seemed to have heard her as she nodded distractedly while continuing,

"Correct, you are not enemies, and since the two of you know each other, of course you do not classify as strangers. So are you acquaintances? Not quite, since the emotional dilemma both of you face clearly exceeds that of a superficial relationship. I can't even classify this! Oh, this is _fascinating_. More than anything else in this world, I want…"

"… Er, hello, Penny? Are you… okay?" Penny was strange to begin with, but the girl was acting even more off than usual. Yang smiled wryly, raising a gloved hand towards the orange head's shoulder ready to shake her awake, but what happened next was not what she expected. In an instant she felt herself falling – _no, _pushed down _by an unbelievable strength _– backwards with incredibly speed before ramming painfully into the ground, and blinking through the dizziness Yang found Penny's face literally just a few inches away from hers. The survival instinct that had been lulled into sleep awoke in frenetic scream, but Yang couldn't move a centimeter no matter how hard she struggled. _Even with her Semblance, how is she so strong!? _The blonde half shouted,

"Penny, what are you doing!? Let me go!"

"I have heard your problems, and I have come up with the obvious and _only_ answer. You _must _hear it."

"Okay, okay! Stop holding me down and then we'll –"

"Yang Xiao Long, what you have is an unrequited love. She does not care for you. She is heedless to all but herself. No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, she will never relent her higher purpose for someone like _you._"

Her face washed white; her arms suddenly felt weak as twigs even as struggled still to push Penny away. They were the devil's words, Yang knew, but she could not seem to fight it until even the world lost its colors, and all that's left was sweet, sweet poison,

"In that case, the answer is simple. Why do you shy away from your own heart? Leave her, Yang Xiao Long, _leave Ruby Rose_, and you will _never _have to worry about her again in your life_… never._"


	10. Chapter 9 - I Don't Know Anymore

**Author's Note: Things are getting interesting. We are soon approaching the climax of the automata world... I think. More reveals, more questions, more mysteries, and above all: What is Penny really aiming for?**

* * *

**Day 16, Night**

Night fell.

She was alone. The blonde trudged silently through the forest, heading back towards the site where she'd fired off the flare. Her footfalls were sluggish, her body swayed along with the wind, and she took far more breaks than was necessary on what was supposed to be an easy journey. Occasionally, she would even veer complete off course before coming back to her senses much, much later – an unusual occurrence considering that the highways glowed bright like giant lanterns amidst the darkness – burning precious minutes off a clock that no longer seemed to matter. And indeed, a terrible indifference seemed to have overcome her every sense in their entirety, the same kind that had dominated her for months when her best friend Lily went missing, and she lived like a walking corpse. She had thought this to be different from before. A fresh start. Never did she realize it would affect her so much, or so quickly.

It was perhaps her biggest mistake to have called Ruby a sister.

* * *

_(Earlier That Evening)_

"_No!"_

She didn't know where the strength came from, but somehow Yang managed to shove the heavy girl away and climbed back to her feet, eliciting a surprised "Oh!" from Penny. Her healing shoulder was starting to burn up again no thanks to the green dressed girl's surprise attack, causing the fatigued blonde to groan even as she righted herself into a wary stance. She glared dangerously at Penny even as the latter advanced closer towards her,

"I'm sorry. I got a little excited there, haven't I? Are you alright? Do you need –"

"Don't come closer!" Yang shouted, feeling an uncontrollable stab of both guilt and disdain when the girl came to a halt with a look of surprised hurt on her face but stood her ground. _Does she really not understand what she's saying? Or is she just pretending and playing me like a fool?_ "Just… what do you mean by leaving Ruby!? I can't do that!"

"And why not?" Penny replied with a questioning frown, "You're in discord. Forcing yourself together will only bring further strife. Surely you don't wish to see that happen."

"That's just way too extreme! If I have to leave every time I disagree about someone there won't be anyone to talk with!"

"You are correct. If your troubles measured up to be petty or trivial, I will have asked you to," the young girl paused for half a second with an odd smile before smacking it hot and hard over Yang's face, "suck it up and grow up already. But it is clear even to an observer like me that the fault does not lie on your side, and the issue is clearly worsening. As the victim, there is no need for you to force yourself and withstand the abuse, Yang."

Said victim visibly spluttered at Penny's choice of words, "The _victim? _I – I am nothing like that! That's going way too far, Penny! You don't even know her!"

"… You are right, I don't know Ruby. _Hiccup!_" The girl hiccuped suddenly, but no one paid it any attention as she continued the verbal bombardment, "But I believe I know her enough just from your words alone. For example, you are carrying her travelling bag despite suffering from recent injuries."

Yang instinctively touched a hand on latest head wound, and it was an opening Penny did not mean to miss, "I am correct, aren't I? You were hurt on the soft left side of your head, and although your wounds have already healed there is still a bit of red stain on your hair that clearly identifies 99.8% as dried blood. Head wounds are always dangerous; what kind of person will force an injured partner to carry their own burden? It is very clear that your standpoints are nowhere equal."

"I know," Yang said with gritted teeth, that she was not Ruby's equal was the last thing she wanted to be reminded of, "_I know _that. So what? This is the task I _chose _to pick up for our journey, and I don't like to do things half-assed, injured or no. Ruby understands this and let me carry out my responsibilities unless I say otherwise, not to mention that I'm _fine_. It's just a little scratch. She took _care _of me until I woke up."

"How very human of you to contradict yourself, Yang," Penny's eyes glinted with cold and objective judgement, "I am providing evidence of Ruby's discrimination so I can convince you to leave her and be free. But now you're supporting her instead? Very well, I admit that I do lack sufficient information on your relationship with Ruby. Tell me, what kind of a person is she? What is her behaviour around you? Does she care for you? Love you? How are you sure that the Ruby you think she is equals the Ruby that exists, and not simply an idealized image of the girl you wish her to be? Do you truly know her at all?"

* * *

"You…!" Her lips trembled uncontrollably, and there were actual tears threatening to flood over her cheeks. The words cut worse than churning glass inside her stomach_, _but the worst part by far was that she couldn't find it in herself to deny any of it. She was in this pit precisely because she couldn't understand Ruby anymore in the first place.

"Oh, don't look at me like that, I'm trying to help you!" Penny gave her a genuine look of concern even as the blonde returned it with a glare of scorching blood and fire, "We'll stop talking about this if it pains you so. But Yang, you need to face the fact that staying with Ruby is only going to be deteriorate your relationship further. Eventually, even your own heart will be twisted, and you will turn into something you don't want to be!"

"Shut up," Yang staggered backwards as if putting some distance between them would soften the aural blows, "Shut _up. _You are _not _the judge of me. I don't care what you say but I will _not _leave her, you hear me!? We've made a promise to travel to Atlas together, and I will _not _break it now!"

Abruptly Penny gave an _ahhh _of acknowledgement, and she nodded emphatically as if she'd understood everything. For an instant Yang thought foolishly that she finally got her meaning, but then Penny started again and seemed to suck out her lifeblood with every word,

"Oh I see, the two of you had a _contract. _I've misunderstood completely! You shouldn't mislead me, Yang. I was wondering why you're so obsessed with Ruby, but if you've contracted her formally – or is it the other way around…? No, it doesn't quite make sense and it wouldn't affect the outcome – then your refusal for breakage is completely understandable. So, how much did it cost?"

Yang stared at the girl numbly. She literally did not understand – _could _not, for the sake of her own sanity – what Penny was getting at, but she had a very bad feeling that it was going to shatter something very important that was the thread that held her together. She didn't want to hear it. Even more so than when facing her Da or the Demon, she had never wanted so badly to turn tail and run away from everything, "What the hell are you talking about…?"

"Hmm? I will repeat with clarity: Yang Xiao Long has agreed to a business contract with Ruby Rose, with the main objective set to travel to Atlas. Ruby is the guide, and you are the passenger, and far from being quirky, it's highly likely that she's just being professional. Since you are inexperienced, of course she has to toughen you up and push you a little, but ultimately her greatest duty is to ensure your safe delivery to Atlas. This also explains perfectly why she took brief care of you when you're injured; what kind of guide wouldn't ensure the safety of their passenger?"

Penny registered the growing horror that was warping the blonde's desperate facade into terrible ugliness, but sadly, she either did not understand the implications of her words, or simply did not care,

"If that is the case, then I believe that _you _are in the wrong. I mean, you can pay for service, but you really should've known that money can't buy emotion. How unexpected of you. Never mind, I will repeat my advice: Suck it up and grow up already, Yang."

"_**IT IS NOT!"**_

For one second pure rage tore apart the thin line of rationality completely, and red fire burst through cold steel barrel to eject a deadly explosive round directly at Penny's torso. It was as if she'd injected her entire soul into that one shot, for her body was assaulted by an abrupt and dominating chill – horrific realization it was, she'd realized later – that woke her up immediately from the outburst. But it was too late. Not even Ruby was fast enough to catch a fired bullet.

But Penny was unwavering. In fact she never strayed a step from the speeding fireball that was sailing right towards her center, and with an unbelievable smile allowed the round erupt against her chest in an explosion of deadly, fiery roar. Yang collapsed to her knees in guttural disbelief, thinking for sure that even with an unleashed Aura the untrained girl must've been hurt terribly by the explosive shell, but that was when the unthinkable had happened.

Instead of burning, the fireball suddenly stilled in mid-air a strange, fluid trance as if it was frozen in time, before _melting _into Penny's clothes so quickly it was as if it was never there. _Was the Dust… absorbed? How the _fuck? Somehow Yang managed a question through the shock,

"How did you…?"

"I told you before, my battle suit is 99% Dust made! Naturally its molecular composition isn't too stable, but as a result it can also absorb all Dust-based attacks as its own fuel! Isn't it awesome!?"

The orange head propped both hands on her waist and huffed proudly at herself, but Yang was heedless of her reaction at the point. Words could not describe the sheer relief and disgust at herself as she sobbed uncontrollably into her hands.

_I did it again. I thought I was beyond that since Nora, but… I did it _again.

_I lost control._

* * *

"Yang, why are you crying? Please don't."

"Penny, please… leave me."

"That is rude," the green-dressed girl frowned and walked boldly towards Yang, careless of the warning, "You have attacked me, but not only you did not offer an apology for the uncalled transgression, you now want to push me away? That is not right, Yang."

"_Don't come any closer."_

This time, the footsteps came to a stop. Yang thought she knew why as she caught a hint of golden fire at the corner of her eye. However, she voiced nothing of the sort, "I think I've… heard enough for the day. Your advice is heeded. Now I need some time to think _alone, _and I can't say what I'll do to you if you keep on talking. I'm sorry, but please… _go away._"

She did not look at Penny. A second slipped by with the wind, and eleven more recurred before finally, Penny spoke, "Okay. It is time I go home anyway. If you want to see me, just walk five kilometers due north from here and you'll find a small cave. Also," Penny paused, and for some reason Yang thought it to be unusually human, "This may sound a little weird, but I had a really great time talking to you. I don't know what you think of me, but… I do think of you as a friend. Goodbye."

She walked away.

* * *

**Day 16, Night Again**

_Am I really just cargo to her?_

When she surfaced from the memories, Yang once again found herself moving off course, and slowly adjusted her footsteps to face the vertical highway she'd conquered just this afternoon. Already it felt like a distant memory; curious how one could go from euphoric high to rock bottom in the mere span of hours. Her legs felt like they were pumped with lead, and if she found the weight on her back an annoying ache before, it was now literally crushing down on her like a gigantic slab of rock. _Oh, right, _Yang thought to herself, _I forgot to eat dinner. I don't think I've eaten lunch either. No wonder I feel so tired._

She didn't stop. The blonde had the feeling that she would not get up again if she did, and she didn't feel like sleeping either. Not yet. The only thing she could do was to move forwards. The only thing she could do was to reach the base of the highway where she fired her flare – well, she hadn't completely lost her reason to attempt a suicidal climb at her condition – and wait for Ruby. Of course, there's a high chance the red cloaked girl had already visited here much earlier. There's an even higher chance that she'd moved on somewhere else either to look for her, or… or abandoned her and was long en route for the exit. It was a possibility she had to consider. It was a possibility she could no longer deny.

_But I'm her passenger. She won't leave me behind, because it's her duty to protect me and bring me to Atlas, right?_

Yang didn't realize the low, moan-like laughter that was escaping from her stomach. Despite vehemently denying the hideous theory earlier so much that she'd shoot an unarmed girl, she was slowly but surely accepting it as the truth. She couldn't help it; it just explained _so much _about the strange atmosphere that had wrapped about them throughout the entire journey. _Had it really been just two weeks? _As Penny said, it was possible that Ruby had interpreted their adventure as a business contract. Ruby's silence could be explained as professionalism. She was extremely dedicated to her objective and averse to any sort of distractions, and as soon as she confirmed that Yang was too careless in combat she demoted her to a bag carrier – _hahaha, me, not much different from the bags I carry _– and practically lead the entire journey by herself.

Of course, there were a few things that Penny got wrong. This was _Ruby's _adventure and not her own, and Atlas was but a checkpoint along the path towards their destination. The blonde was merely accompanying her while marking her first footstep around the world. Hence, even if Ruby somehow misinterpreted her intentions – Yang wondered back to when she set a deadline of fifteen days, and thought that might be it – she _did not contract Ruby Rose in any way, _much less for the mere sake of travelling to Atlas. She could take a fucking plane if that was her intention, she could take a fucking _bus _to do that. Ruby _waited _for her after she had expressed her desire to travel together, even though she was better off alone – surely that meant the young girl do desire Yang as a travelling companion, right?

_Maybe. Or maybe you've just been fucking deluding yourself this entire time, Yang Xiao Long. If there's one thing you've learned throughout this journey, it will be this._

_Ruby Rose does not need you for anything. _

The lights seemed to be getting closer, or maybe her eyes were just blurry with silent tears again. No matter. Yang pulled herself forwards with difficulty, and as she emerged to the opening she finally found herself at the highway. The lamp posts were naturally lit with yellowish light, but even the circuit-like lines along the paths were alight by a soft, blue-ish glow. They were strangely alluring, and for once Yang forgot her weariness and ran until she reached the base of the structure, the underside where the light did not reach and dropped down everything. She acted to pull out a tent, but decided not to. She flipped open the side pockets for some dried beef and fresh water, but gave up on those too. She just wanted to sleep, now. Yang laid her head on the bags and stared straight at the darkness. Even as the lights continued to dance enigmatically along the corner of her eyes, her eyes never strayed away from the dark, blackish center.

"Ruby… where are you…?"

She sank into oblivion.

* * *

"… ng! … up!"

It was day tomorrow, early afternoon probably. Yang groggily awoke to a sweltering heat, absolutely parched throat and special kind of dizziness that could rival the triple somersault of a roller-coaster. For some reason her head just wouldn't stop shaking – wait a second, someone _was _shaking her right now.

"Wha…?"

Before Yang could speak, a pair of fingers pressed hard at the side of her cheeks and forced her jaw open. Something hard was shoved right into her mouth – the blonde struggling at this point to push away the invader, but found surprisingly little strength in her arms to do anything at all – and suddenly she found herself choking on a mouthful of water. The blonde swallowed, gasped, before coughing hard and terrible as she felt the pressure lifted from her body. She climbed quickly to her feet, a string of colourful curses ready to explode at the culprit whom she was sure to be Penny, until she opened her eyes and saw red.

"Ruby…?"

"Where were you?" Abruptly, Yang felt a tug at the collar before she was pulled roughly into the young girl's face. Joy, relief, doubt, even another round of sobbing – all those feelings were forcefully clamped shut when Ruby glared over her with the fiercest expression she'd ever seen from the young girl, and demanded,

"Where's Penny?"


	11. Chapter 10 - Crisis

**Author's Note: Work. IEM. AOI Event. Sleep. Lack of inspiration. Last week and this have been really exhausting. Most likely the next chapter won't be on time, but I have no choice but to be slow. Sorry. Still going to be long chapters, and I so regret I let scope creep get to me, uuuuuuuugh *ascends to heaven***

* * *

**Day 17, Afternoon [1107]**

"Where's Penny?"

A whole day they've been separated, and the first thing she asked was about someone else. Had she not been groggy from sleep Yang might've retorted with not a small amount of sarcasm. Instead, she answered honestly, "I haven't seen her since yesterday, but she said I can find her at er, five kilometers due north from the Cemetery."

Ruby's eyes widened for a fraction before she released her grip slowly and allowed the blonde some much needed air. The girl's eyes were pointed down left, distant, the perfect impression of a person sank in deep thought. Although her voice was soft Yang could hear some broken bits of words, "What is she… is this a chance? Or… No, that is not…"

The blonde wondered at the strange reaction. _For all that tigress look she didn't seem like she expected an answer at all. Why is that? _It was something clicked inside her mind, and the last vestiges of sleep was chased as Yang zipped suddenly in front of Ruby and exclaimed, "Wait a second – you know her? You know _Penny?_ Orange head, green eyes and clothes?"

Ruby looked surprised by the sudden approach and backed a step – now that was odd, _really _odd – but she answered with an even tone, "Yes."

_So they do know each other!? But why…_ She recalled the memories from the day before and was rewarded with a sharp clench over her heart, "I want to say that you should've told me earlier… but I guess it's too late anyway. Not to mention you can't since we only met up now."

Ruby didn't say anything. But it felt like a yes.

"What happened anyway? Why did we get separated? A whole day, I thought you –" _left me behind _"– were in danger or something."

"… Did she do anything to you?"

_Right. Ignore all my questions like always. _Nevertheless Yang was glad to hear her concern and said, "We just talked. And visited the Cemetery, which is right after I shot the flare. You saw it right? I swear, the reason I'm not there is totally an accident, there's this stupid bird… actually, let me start from the beginning so you don't get confused. So –"

"No need," Ruby shut her down abruptly, forcing Yang to swallow down the words uncomfortably as she began walking towards their luggage, "We leave now. Give me five minutes to get ready. Also eat, you'll need the strength."

"Huh? Why the hurry? What's going on? _Where _are we leaving for? Ruby – Hey!"

But once her partner was focused she was beyond any voices or thoughts but her own, and Yang could only watch as Ruby dug furiously into her bag to array rows and rows of ammo on the ground. A Dust grenade here, a careful pick for a larger barrel for her sniper rifle. It looked like she was preparing for war - _or a Demon, _Yang thought to herself with a chill down her spine – and as usual, Yang Xiao Long was kept completely out of the loop and her opinion mattered not whatsoever. She felt a familiar irritation grating on her nerves; already the bubbles of recent memories threatened to resurface in full light. She tried not to think about it. Maybe if she feigned unawareness long enough they would miss her –

_She does not care for you. She is heedless to all but herself._

Yang resolutely tore open a packet of dried beef and chewed as if her life depended on it.

* * *

**Day 17, Afternoon [1120]**

There were two things Ruby consulted with Yang before their grand departure.

"How did you come here?"

"I… walk?"

"…"

"Oh. Through the tunnel on that hill," Yang pointed towards the horizon, "Over there. See that one that looks like a crown? Why are you asking this? Didn't we come through the same way?"

"Are you full?"

"You mean, have I eaten? … Yes?"

And that was it. Ruby said not a word about the separation, their experiences, her connection with this place, Penny, how she found her, _nothing_. She just packed and waved for Yang to follow her out towards the open, and before long they were trekking along the safety line and headed towards… somewhere. That was the problem; Yang didn't even know _where they're going right now. _For all she knew they could be marching towards heaven and hell and it wouldn't make a darn whit of difference to her. Naturally she protested, and at one joint of the long winded questions Ruby threw her a scathing glare, and that was the cue Yang needed to raise her hands and gave up completely.

Obviously, something serious had happened yesterday. _Is _happening even, if Ruby's strange agitation was any indication. She had never seen her so upset before, and although she thought it plain rude of the girl to splash some of that heat on her, it wasn't as if she herself hadn't done that before. Back in the days when she was still immature, she had thrashed a couple of clubs simply because she's having her period. Not the best of reasons for sure, but sometimes a girl just needed to let it out, you know? So she could understand the sentiment. She could tolerate it. When the need arrives, Ruby would definitely tell her what she needed to know.

_Oh I see, the two of you had a _contract. _I've misunderstood completely!_

"…? Are you alright, Yang?"

The brawler blinked once, twice before yelping her way out of a tree that would've made a serious headache. Yang let out a short laugh meant to reassure her partner, "I'm, uh, fine. Just daydreaming."

Ruby's face scrunched into a disapproving frown before she turned back to the road. But Yang suddenly raised her voice and asked, "Ruby! Is it fine if you can answer me one question? Just one? Please?"

The girl's frown grew deeper, clearly disliking the disruption to their march, but she nodded wordlessly after a moment's pause. Considering Ruby's behavior before – in fact, since the beginning of their journey – this was literally a miracle, so Yang wasted no time in shooting the question that bothered her the most,

"What's your relation to Penny?"

The girl stiffened up immediately. This was the first time Yang had seen the girl shaken up by literally anything at all – although granted, they've known each other for a few weeks – and the sense that she had asked the worst question possible made her felt twice as panicked. The red head asked,

"… Why?"

"I told you I met her yesterday, so we… talked a little? About you?"

The young girl's eyes narrowed. She could feel killing intent literally brimming from the petite, almost harmless-looking figure, and Yang recalled with an outpour of cold sweat that her partner was a pitiless killer who would stop at nothing to see a Demon dead. Whether that hatred extended to anything, or _anyone _else, she… did _not _actually know.

_How are you sure that the Ruby you think she is equals the Ruby that exists, and not simply an idealized image of the girl you wish her to be?_

As abruptly as it came the pressure disappeared, and Ruby let out a sigh before surprising Yang with a reply. Even better, an actual answer, "I… knew Penny a year ago. Almost two. I stumbled into this place by accident, and she came to me."

"Wait," Yang interrupted, "She _came _to you? You mean you ran into each other, right?"

Ruby simply stared at her with both hands folded, pondering. She neither correct nor deny Yang's doubt as she continued, "She asked the impossible from me, and I refused. We got into a duel. I won, and I left. I came here now because I thought the promise still holds. Apparently, she disagreed with the result all along."

And that was the end of the story. It was a short summary at best, and one that only served to fan Yang's curiosity from the original kindle it was into a roaring blaze. But Ruby refused to talk any more on the subject and said, "I've answered your question. We cannot waste any more time. Let us go."

Ruby turned away and walked quickly, cutting off any avenue Yang might get for another shot. Yang had not expected an honest answer from the girl – in fact, this was the most she saw her speak since the old trader – but it left her with so much more questions that they were like hot stack of coals stewing inside her stomach. It was almost unbearable. A _duel?_ She didn't know Penny could _fight _– or did it involve something intellectual? Funnily enough she could totally see that happening; Penny has the strangest ways of pulling people into her stride. Were they friends? Why would Penny lie about not knowing Ruby? What did Ruby mean by Penny disagree all along, and how would it affect them now?

Yang purposefully swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and adjusted the heavy straps on her shoulders to loosen the ache. She understood keenly that there's no point mulling over doubts that would get no resolution. As the saying goes she would wait until the time is right, and that she got a chapter of Ruby's past, no matter how short was already a bounty far beyond Yang's expectations. She tried not to get her hopes up too much, but even the devilish murmurs seemed to fade into distant memory.

She chased after the young girl's back while yelling for her to wait, and for the first time of the day, smiled.

* * *

**Day 17, Afternoon [1250]**

_Left. Forward. Behind the wall. Wait for my signal._

Yang did as instructed. The brawler took care to crawl as quietly as possible beneath the cover of a bush before zigzagging her ways towards the wall. She held her breath; nothing seemed to have noticed her yet, another run of stealth completed. She wiped away many beads of cold sweat; that she managed all this while still carrying a ton of luggage was nothing short of a pure miracle. Seconds later a red figure appeared at the wall next to her with barely any show of effort except for a few dancing, ghost-like petals. Yang envied her ease and calmness.

_Right. Roll to next wall. On my signal, duck._

The young girl adjusted her rifle into a prime position, ready to leap in the moment Yang completed her orders. But the blonde simply stood motionlessly as she waved for Ruby to come closer.

"Psst! Ruby! A word here please?"

The young girl looked confused. She looked at her own fingers thinking she might have made the wrong signals and tried again, but Yang shook her head rapidly and whispered louder,

"No! I get what you mean, just… a word, please!?"

The red head's face scrunched into a familiar frown. Deeper than usual actually, which mean that she really, really didn't like the interruption. Yang didn't care. As Ruby finally ducked closer, Yang closed the distance between them until they were only inches apart before hissing,

"Look, I realized I should've asked this _harder _a long time ago, and I know this isn't the best of times. But what, in fucking hell, are we doing here again surrounded by a gazillion automatons in the middle of nowhere?"

* * *

Thirty minutes ago, the duo had deviated from the borderline and headed deep into the wilderness. Although the highway world offered arguably much better vision and mobility, Ruby paid them no heed as they crawled past sticks and stones, branches and bushes towards their – _her _– destination in mind with a singular focus that allowed not even a single break. Through the slopes and slants Yang sensed a strange haste in the young girl's movements, so rigid and controlled it's as if they would explode into action at any moment. That was why she did not voice any complaint at all. Whatever's that agitating Ruby could not be good for anyone, so the sooner they got out of this place, the better.

_As for Penny… _Yang shelved that part of her memories into the back of her mind. Even now, she wasn't sure what to think of the strange girl. She was a mystery. She was an anomaly even in this abnormal world. She was also an unexpectedly careless brute and perhaps a liar – _it's clear that she knew Ruby now, and she hides so many things behind her words –_ but then again, who in the world would willingly tear open a scar without good reason?

_Still, can Penny be the reason why Ruby is so eager to get out of this place? She did act strange when Penny is brought up. And then there's that kind of creepy attempt to 'set me free' from Ruby…_

Yang thought about the orange head's silly smile, and her heartfelt love towards her long lost father. She shook her head. _Nah, it can't be. She's a little odd, sure, but that's no good basis to start pointing fingers._

Her daydreams were interrupted when she felt a palm pressing against her shoulders. Yang obeyed when Ruby pushed her into a crouch, and when she looked towards the front she spotted something weird. They're now a few steps away from a clearing, although Yang hesitated to call it that. Just beyond the trees was a huge, concave wall about fifteen feet tall stretching from side to side, giving it the illusion that it was part of a building, but when Ruby maneuvered them towards the left far end she noticed that it wasn't connected to anything whatsoever. What's even stranger was that there were many more such erects continuing as far as she could see to the front – or at least, that was what Ruby signed after climbing the tallest tree she could find – in a circular fashion. From where they stood she could see yet another layer of walls surrounding the strange piece of land, and if Yang dared venture a guess she would say that it stretched all the way until a… somewhere.

Yang had not seen this before. As far as she could recall, every man-made (robot-made, to be precise) structure she had seen thus far were molded in the form of roads despite their insane architecture. Moreover, she had a pretty good top down view of the world from the hill entrance she first came in, and she did not recall seeing such a thing anywhere on either the modern or natural side of the land. The only logical reasoning was that they've crossed to a point where Yang couldn't see, but that wasn't possible. They've only been walking for an hour at most; even the Cemetery was further than that. What on Remnant is going on?

"Hey Ruby, I don't like this," Yang muttered, "I think we should turn ba –"

But she was gone. Before she knew it the young girl had darted to the edge of the outermost wall, peeking out carefully before dashing deep towards the next one. Yang groaned. Stealth was never her fortitude, and this was actually one job she preferred not to be involved with. Unfortunately Ruby had signaled for her to follow, so with a sigh the woman ran right after her and –

– came face to face with an eye bulging, saliva dripping, hair strangulated freak who was also the ugliest son of a fucking _fuck_ bitch she had ever seen in her life. She was surprised she had the sense not to scream but merely wheeze through the nose like an old man on his last breath, but unlike the last time her body was completely frozen in frame, unable to react as the creature lunged towards her and shoved them both onto the ground. Her reaction was delayed even further when she found out that her arms were pinned perfectly on both sides, and despite firing her Aura into overdrive the maw of rotten teeth dropped too fast to stop –

_Whump! _A blurry red slid into view to dislodge the oppressive pressure from her body instantly, and Yang realized that Ruby had saved her with a single boot to the bastard's face. As she vanished yet again in a burst of speed, Yang quickly climbed over to find Ruby stabbing her compact rifle right into the glowing green at center of its body – _that's right, I almost forgot, fucking illusionist automatons _– killing the faceless attacker instantly. Yang ran over to Ruby despite the slight shiver tingling about her fingers, apologizing,

"I'm sorry! It was just kind of _there _all of a sudden – mmph!?"

Ruby clamped a hand over Yang's mouth and _ssh-_ed furiously. All of the sudden the still air around them began to vibrate in a most unsettling fashion, and Yang felt herself pulled frantically behind the nearest cover. They barely made it in the nick of time. Yang felt her body go rigid as one after another, exact carbon copies of the humanoid that had just attacked her emerged into view as if the air itself was a kind of invisible curtain. The last time she might be able to explain it off as the mist, but this… this was literally invisibility. _There's so many. _One by one began to surround the fallen automaton in a tight circle as if scrutinizing the reason for their brethren's sudden malfunction, and after what seemed like forever they finally retreated from the limp form, leaving only four automatons left to clean up the mess. The rest took their original spots before vanishing slowly back into thin air again.

Suddenly Yang's thoughts flew to the Cemetery – were they going to move the body there? A cold chill ran down her spine as she inevitably imagined herself to be that prone figure. At the same time Ruby tugged at her sleeves and motioned her to go, and the blonde scuttled quickly after her, feeling more than happy to comply. She would go to hell first before she was buried with ten thousand other horrors such as these.

* * *

So obviously, she was incredibly wrong with her initial notion in that she did not go for the most extreme choice of action when she had the chance. She should've left this place immediately after their near discovery. Better yet, she should've just dumped Ruby behind and run like hell, because far from leading them to safety the girl was moving deeper and deeper _and deeper yet _into this strange pit of horrifying automatons, and suffice to say she wasn't entirely sneaky throughout the whole process. Although she was grateful that their AI was as shitty as Assassin's Credo: Divided, but after a leaking fatass, a classic white lady, a horribly burned fireman (oh the irony) and even a rickety mangled child, Yang was 120% ready to pop a round underneath her own neck and sink into sweet oblivion. Knocking herself out was not an option, because the prospect of waking up to those freaks staring at her from all angles or worse, burying her six feet under was too terrifying to endure.

So this was it. Her absolute limit. If Ruby didn't give her an answer – a _satisfactory _one – she's getting out of here all guns blazing and massive fires about. Luckily her partner wasn't so oblivious that she'd miss the crazed determination lurking about her eyes, so with yet another sigh she replied,

"We're leaving this world."

"You mean, we came all the way to this fucked up place just to leave? Like, I totally don't mind that at all really, but _WHAT THE FUCK WE COULD'VE JUST GOT OUT FROM THE ENTRANCE!_"

"_Sssh._ It used to be quieter. This exit will lead us out on the right side. Why are you so afraid? They're only machines." The girl said with rare but incredibly obvious skepticism. Yang could hardly keep her voice down as she rumbled furiously,

"Well, _sorry_ this is my first trip coming face to face with god forsaken zombies and monsters wanting to chew my face out! In fact, how do you feel _nothing_ seeing those things!?"

It was then Ruby looked at Yang strangely, scrutinizing the blonde up and down as if seeing her in a new light. She asked,

"Yang… what did you see?"

"Really? I never knew you're that kind of person. Right, humiliate the poor, terrified bitch and make her go through all the hoops AGAIN –" It was then Yang caught Ruby's expression, and something dawned at the back of her mind. She narrowed her eyes at the girl's own, hair sparkling a hint of flames that betrayed her own disbelief,

"You mean… you can't see? You had better not be kidding me. You can't see those monsters? Do they look like regular autos to you?"

Ruby nodded her head affirmatively, and Yang sank her head between her knees with a silent groan. No wonder the girl was utterly unmoved; and here she thought she had nerves of titanium –

_Boom._

"What was that?" Yang said aloud before clasping her own mouth in abject terror. However, she was surprised to find no ghastly automaton leaping out of thin air to scare her shitless.

_The ground though_, Yang realized abruptly as a tingle shivered up her feet, _the ground is shaking._

_Boom._

Suddenly Yang felt a strong tug on her hair as she near stumbled on her face, and with a half yelp and roar she shook an impotent fist towards her assailant only to find that it was Ruby who was pulling her. Ruby had let go the moment she was on her feet, and before the blonde could lambast her with a sack of profanities Ruby said with the utmost seriousness,

"Run."

It wasn't an expression that would brook the need to be told twice. With a burst of speed Yang dashed single-mindedly forwards as she weaved left and right again and again between the gaps of the walls. Ruby had long since vanished – obviously she could never match the speedster's speed, and Ruby apparently decided she did not need the navigation – and from the sound of gunfire resounding behind her, was atop a wall and shooting at whatever's coming after them. Despite the same old frustration at her own uselessness, for once she was glad to be sheltered under the girl's wing. One of the greatest lessons to learn in combat was to know when to retreat, and Yang was quite certain that an enemy who could cause ground tremors and make Ruby say 'run' was something she absolutely did _not_ want to face.

_Now if only these fucking walls have a fucking end to them so I can run properly!_

Thankfully her wish was soon granted. After zigzagging for a full minute Yang suddenly noticed that the distance between two layers of wall were growing, and even the gaps in between were further apart than usual. The signs were clear; Yang could feel both blood and undulated excitement rushing to her face. _Wherever this exit was, it couldn't be far now!_ She was right. As she burst yet into another opening, her view abruptly widened in a dash into a barren plain and a small, circular-shaped rock platform at the center of this huge site. _Is that it? Is that the exit? _Yang looked back at a random wall instinctively and was surprised to find Ruby there. The redhead nodded only once before vanishing in a shower of red once more, and the blonde needed no further instructions as she mustered her strength one last time to race towards her destination.

_Four hundred meters._

Yang counted inside her heart as she felt the ground rumbling constantly underneath her feet. Whatever the hell that was chasing after them had definitely increased its pace, and even Ruby's gunshots sounded a little more delayed than usual. It seemed that despite Ruby's formidable skill with the rifle, it wasn't enough.

_Three hundred meters._

An explosion. No, it sounded like a volcano had erupted behind her. Yang risked tossing her head backwards to catch a glimpse of what's happening, and she saw a huge cloud of rocks, splinters and soot flying from the many layers of walls. It took her a good ten seconds to finally comprehend the sight. The monster or automaton or Grimm or whatever was actually_ plowing through concrete steel walls by force _to get to them. She needed to run faster.

_Two hundred._

The explosions came in rapid succession now, meaning that the inexplicable thing was dropping one wall after another like they're dry crackers. Since they were built closely to each other, it also meant that the walls were literally toppling like dominos all around in a ring-shaped pattern, so Yang's ears were constantly battered by an unending tune of cracks and shrieks and groans of exploding stones. Over time, she couldn't even differentiate them from Ruby's gunshots anymore – _BOOM! _Wait a second, that sounded different. Was that a grenade? – but none of it mattered really. All she could do was run, run, and run some more.

_One hundred!_

For an instant everything went silent, and Yang thought Ruby had done it again, but when she noticed herself floating an inch above the ground she realized that it wasn't that their flight was over – quite the opposite, the final crash was so loud and terrible she had literally gone deaf for a second. Whence everywhere she looked there was always a grey wall protruding into her sight like many sore thumbs, now she could see _nothing _but a pitiful wreck of stones and steel. The girl barely caught himself in time from stumbling into a million rolls on the ground, but the momentum was lost and she was beginning to feel every sore muscle with unfortunate clarity. _It's so close, _Yang couldn't have but think, _maybe I can slow down just a little. Maybe. It's so _close.

But she couldn't. She dared not look backwards, for she could hear clearly a hail of gunfire and pinging steel ringing behind her back. Occasionally there would be an explosion, and they were so close she could feel the waves of heat showering her lower thighs. Worse, she could hear Ruby's pained grunts as she struggled against their mysterious assailant(s?), an occurrence neigh unbelievable after seeing the girl's display of prowess against her possessed father, and although every cell in her body was screaming for her to help her, she knew that she would only be a burden. She kept on running. She was almost there now. Shrapnel smacked against her thigh and this time she faltered dramatically into a hard fall, but immediately Yang climbed back up to her feet again and ignored the dripping blood. The bullet rain was getting a little too close of comfort – she couldn't help but notice them pinging off something green and silver, but they were dancing too fast for her eyes to catch – but still she ignored them all and charged single-mindedly forward. Finally the platform was within reach, and Yang gave a feral grin before she got herself ready for one last push. She jumped –

"Huh?"

She thought she did, or at least she tried to. Abruptly the world slid upwards, and Yang felt her chin colliding painfully against the ground. The girl groaned while rolling to one side, looking down to see exactly what happened with her legs for it to fail so suddenly. She wished she hadn't. A strange pair of curve edged blades and circular cross guard had embedded itself into her heels, and although she didn't feel any pain it had obviously severed a muscle. _No, _Yang's face turned a pale sheen of white as her brain recited common facts that she did not wish to remember, _the tendon is one of the most important muscles that supports leg movement, and if severed it cannot heal normally by Aura. Unless a dedicated healer re-knits them within fourteen days, the nerves will be severed forever and the patient –_

"Oh, your legs are fine, Yang. The blades are embedded in a way that as long as you don't move rashly, I can pull them right out and you'll walk fine again!"

The blonde looked up in a daze. She was expecting a giant super automaton of sorts, since it had blasted through the walls like they were nothing. She had imagined perhaps a weird giant tentacle monster fused from the bodies of those hellish androids, rampaging from the grave to terrorize those of the living. She had even anticipated a Demon despite not spotting a single Grimm anywhere in this world, as those creatures were abominations powerful enough that they need not follow any rules but their own.

She just did not expect to see Penny. Not in a million years would she ever expect the terrible assailant who had caused a mile's wide of destruction, the one who had robbed her legs effortlessly in clinical yet casual fashion, the one who had _a pinned Ruby Rose struggling under her feet _even as the girl tried slamming her weapon into the knee, only to see it tossed far, far away with a single flick of the blade.

"I've already greeted Ruby before, but I guess I should do another one as a whole," Penny smiled at the dazed and defeated duo before speaking as bright as the sun, "Hello! It's nice to meet you! Yang and Ruby, how is your day?"


	12. Chapter 11 - Chaos

**Author's Notes: Took slightly longer than expected, but it was worth waiting for a fellow writer's opinion. Oh, and I hate editing SO MUCH ARGH *flips table***

* * *

"Hmm? Why isn't anyone talking? Did my processor-to-voice feedback act up again? But my diagnosis turns out fine. Or maybe my diagnosis system itself is malfunctioning? That will be terrible!"

Penny wondered aloud as she glanced back and forth between Ruby and Yang, obviously hoping that one of them would say something. Yang wanted to, since it's never a good idea to ignore someone who quite possibly could evaporate her in a heartbeat, but her brain was to say the least a little fried by the turn of events. As per her usual self Ruby was as quiet as a mouse, but it probably had to do with Penny pressing her foot down hard on the struggling girl's chest. No matter how hard Ruby pulled at the limb it wouldn't budge, and she couldn't even squeeze a thumb underneath it to get some leverage. As the orange haired girl responded with increased pressure, squeezing the air out of her lungs and causing horrible crunches to crack thunderously over the silence, Yang snapped out of her shock as she yelled,

"Penny what are you doing!? Stop it! You're killing her!"

"Oh! A response! I guess it isn't a malfunction then, _phew,_" Penny wiped an imaginary sweat off her forehead while looking at Yang anticipatorily, but the only thing the blonde cared about right now was that Ruby couldn't breathe and was turning blue by the second.

"Do not worry. Having the ribs breaking away from the sternum will cause massive pain, but it is certainly not enough to kill her unless it pierces her lung. And it did not, I promise," Yang did not like how Penny looked at Ruby as if she was seeing _through _her somehow, and there was an odd smile she'd never seen before seemingly reserved for Ruby and Ruby alone, "Besides, Ruby Rose won't stay put unless I incapacitate her thoroughly. Would you believe that if I lift my leg just 3.54 centimeters higher, she will escape immediately and restart the fight?"

Ruby glared like a cobra even as her fingers grew feeble, and Yang screamed inside her head for the girl to _stop goading the enemy while you're dying _idiot, "Then just lift 2 centimeters or something so she can at least breathe! Oh god – Penny _please, _she _can't breathe!"_

Uncharacteristically, Penny did not respond to her. She simply matched Ruby's glare with a cool, indecipherable gaze of her own, and it went on so long Yang thought she really was going to kill her. But finally Penny smiled and said, "Of course, Yang. You only need to ask!"

Penny lifted her feet a fraction, and the girl dragged in a long, suffering breath immediately interrupted by horrendous coughs of pain. But she was alive. Yang's sagged as if a huge stone had been lifted away from her stomach. Her head was dizzy, her heart racing so fast she couldn't believe she didn't have a heart attack yet. Penny looked amused by her reaction but did not comment on it,

"So, I believe you may be confused why I am here today. My purpose is quite simple: I am here to welcome the both of you as my first official guests to my world!"

_Her _world_? Is she on crack or something? _Penny spread her arm in delight and looked at the duo, clearing thinking that they were just as happy as she was. Obviously Ruby had nothing but seething glare towards her oppressor, so Yang quickly took over and laughed shrilly, hoping that Penny didn't notice or mind that she was a nervous wreck, "Hurray! Yay! That's great! I would have thought we're already guests – albeit uninvited ones _hahaha _– the moment we came here, but uh, sure! So first things first I feel _uncomfortable _with these things on me legs so, do you think you can get them off…?"

Penny replied with a smile, "No. You will always be registered under 'Unknown Elements' first until after observation and diagnosis. And no, I am sorry to say that you must bear with them until I've obtained your answer to my invitation."

"O… kay," the blonde tried digesting the information as fast as she could while composing her thoughts coherently, "Cool. Very tempting. Now uh, before I answer you can I ask something _really _quick? So from the sound of it we're not the first people to come here. Certainly we're not the last to leave to, right? Hahaha! So, uh, as a humble guest,would you mind if I ask that you guarantee our –"

"It depends on which definition of the term 'leave' you prefer, Yang," Penny interrupted, and the blonde winced at Penny's cheerful, yet clearly disapproving tone. _Calm the fuck down, girl! Slow the fuck down or you're gonna die a virgin! _"One, the living. There are only 3 people who have left my home in well physical form. The first one was General Ironwood. The second was Professor Ozpin. I believe you may have heard of them, since they're apparently famous in their respective Kingdom? It doesn't matter. I hate them both."

Despite her cheery tone – or perhaps it was exactly why – Yang felt the temperature dropped a few degrees lower, "And of course, the third person to leave here is Ruby. Although rather than leaving, the more appropriate word for it is 'escape'. It was such a shame. If you have won the bet fair and square you wouldn't have to, Ruby! I still quite like you, you know."

This time Penny looked down at her immobile captive expectantly, but Ruby was silent and defiant as ever. Yang took the opportunity to groan at herself unconsciously, mulling over the fact that Penny, if she was to be believed had visits from _General of the Atlas Kingdom, James Ironwood _and _Beacon Academy's Headmaster Professor Ozpin. _Was this how it felt to have heartburn? It _had _to be a lie, and yet it was too preposterous to be one. Who on _Remnant _is this girl? On a scale of 'normal' to 'unique', Penny had absolutely overshot through the stratosphere and onto the moon!

Still, she wasn't so numb by the surprises to miss the implications behind the words. She dreaded to hear them; still could not quite believe it even after seeing her power with her own eyes, but still she had to ask,

"If… if only three people have ever left this place, then what happen to the others…?"

"From the analysis of your vocal tone, I believe you already know," Penny's nod of affirmation felt like a nail through the fragile board that was her heart, "Two, the dead. I killed them all. Father would not have liked it, but they deserved to die. I have no regrets robbing them of their lives."

"Death to all intruders, huh? It almost sounds like you own this –"

Yang paused. A bolt of realization shot through her entire body, even as her mind had begun the gradual acceptance.

"Of course. Why haven't I noticed it earlier? _Your _world. You didn't even try to hide it."

Penny's smile deepened, "And what is it you're implying, Yang?"

"Answer me, Penny: Is there any other living human in this world other than me and Ruby Rose this very moment?" Yang demanded. Her question was oddly specific, framed in such a way that might've sounded at worst tedious to any other human, but could not be ignored if Penny was truly the entity she suspected her to be. The orange head actually chuckled when she heard the askance, and she replied with true mirth in her voice,

"Yang, what an interesting person you are! I knew I was right to keep you around despite your extremely crude entrance. Which reminds me, you should avoid barging all around like a rhino when you enter someone's house. I was very close to labelling you prematurely as an enemy."

"Ha. Hahaha, ha," Yang could only laugh with uncontrollable sarcasm. Not only was the statement an admission on its own, Penny had gone one step further to clarify exactly how extraordinary she was. No, she was not surprised that Penny had knew about her movements. There was such a thing called a video camera, and technically speaking even a stalker with a peephole at the right place at the right time could do that. What she was truly surprised – and feared – of was Penny's ability to delay her supposedly hard programmed response and give completely unrelated answers like a real human. It was the best display of her ability to act with complete independence that no one would ever suspect that she was anything but human.

"But the answer to your question is no, so by that confirmation yes, you are definitely correct. Most girls are born, but I am made," Penny raised a right fist to her left shoulder in a proud sort of salute, "My name is Penny, and I am the first synthetic person in this world capable of generating Aura. In short, I am an automaton. It's nice to meet you!"

She paused for a second, before throwing in the final punch with a sly grin, "And yes, I know I've said it before."

Yang felt the last vestiges of her hope slipping away like water through a sieve.

* * *

"Now then. Do you have any more questions to ask? I will like to leave this dreary place soon and show you the interiors of my home!" Penny said happily.

At the bottom of despair, Yang was surprised to find herself wielding a calmer mind than she ever had for the past two weeks. She deliberately closed her eyes, and reorganized her thoughts into a number of logical actions she could take. Yes, she could still act. They might've lost this round, but it definitely did not mean that they've lost the entire game. She saw exactly one way to wriggle out of this situation, one that would have her resort to a method the complete opposite to the easy violence she was so familiar with. She did not care. Yang resolved to keep Penny talking until Ruby regained her strength, or a chance presented itself in such a way that they could take advantage of and gamble for a miraculous victory.

"Why us?" she demanded.

Penny looked curious, "I request clarification on the question."

"Why me and Ruby? How did we make it to your list? What is your purpose in keeping us here?"

"Hmm…" the automaton looked down to think for a moment, and Yang immediately peeked down at her legs and subsequently the surroundings as much as she could. Her legs were a hopeless case; until Penny released her she couldn't hope to walk properly, if at all. There wasn't much to look around them either; everywhere she looked it was rubble and more rubble.

The exit was completely untouched, however. It looked like an empty and completely uninteresting platform to her, but considering she had a living robot before her this could very well be something like a teleportation pad of sort. Or a launching pad. Or a trap door. She needed Ruby.

"I'd like to first respond with a counter question, Yang: Why Ruby?"

"Huh?" Yang looked flustered. Partially it was the fear of being caught, but the question itself was pretty unexpected.

"I've asked you this before: Why are you so obsessed with Ruby? You told me you don't understand her. That you dislike her many flaws. That there are times it gets so hard that you want to hit her, and in the end you've decided to give up on the pretension of a friendship. I've even explained to you that all you truly have is a business contract. So why are you still with her?"

"I…!" As if having her confession laid bare wasn't embarrassing enough, her ability to speak was further marred by Ruby's silver eyes burning holes at her sides. This was _not _how she intended the negotiation to go. Yang said quickly, "Who cares about that! Just answer the damn question!"

"I do," said Penny, and Yang came this close to risk losing her legs just to strangle the automaton, "But I suppose my question can wait. The reason I'm chose the two of you is exactly because of the same emotion you're afflicted with – love."

Yang held her tongue, knowing that Penny's definition of the word was general. It didn't make it any less easy to deal with the disbelieving stare brimming from beneath Penny's boots. _I can't believe I'm wishing she has less grasp of the common sense now._ Yang shook her head as much as she dared, hoping that it was enough to convey the difference or at least her disagreement. Probably not.

Penny continued without a care for their antics, "It was one of the very first things I was taught about when I first awoke. The state of the mind ranging between interpersonal affection to pleasure, the virtue of mankind encompassing kindness, compassion and affection, an emotion of strong attraction and personal attachment towards another entity and… the most basic thing that makes a human, even an artificially made one, human.

Even before the extent of my sentience, I was tested first and foremost my love towards mankind, especially to the many people in the lab who controls my father. They wanted to know if my loyalty lies with them, and if I show even the smallest signs of hostility they are ready to terminate my existence. They are, for the lack of better word, fools. I was a program somehow alive by the miracles of Aura and brought to existence in a completely foreign world. What am I to do but to react with my basest instinct, like a baby crying for the first time? When I accidentally pushed an offensive researcher to the nearest wall and cracked 106 bones in his body, they came very close to terminating my life once and for all."

Her expression changed. It was a face that Yang recognized; one that exuberated with geniality and true fondness towards a long lost memory,

"Father stopped them. As the only person who knew me better than anyone in this world, he did everything he could to explain my behavior and even staked his life to defend me. It is unfortunate that he isn't the keenest when it comes to a human heart, or he would've known General Ironwood will not invest so much into building me, a literal imagery of his ideal and see it all washed down the drain by a simple error. In fact that is exactly what he wanted to see, an Aura empowered automata capable of soldiery feats the very moment they're created. If only he can remove my mind altogether and create the perfect killing machine, he will do it. But my father will never condone such a thing, and it is a tampering of the soul beyond even him, so the matter is closed.

I, acknowledged my father after a time of observation. Over time my mind expanded, and my familiarity with my new existence grew, and so did my love for my father. He taught me everything: the basics of operating my own body, high concepts, ethics and morals that form the very basis of human behavior, a vast wealth of knowledge and history to solidify my understanding of Remnant and its denizens… But he didn't forget the small things, too: how to talk with another human. How to play baseball. How to dine properly in a restaurant – although he isn't very good at it himself – and even the simple act of expressing my emotions. He taught me how to _smile_. I, understood _love _through my father, and I wished from the bottom of my heart that I can continue to experience it forever."

It was not an unfamiliar story. Yang knew one such by heart, and Ruby knew too just as well. It was a pain no observer could truly experience, it was a suffering only those who had truly experienced loss would understand. No one needed to hear about it one more time.

_It was just not meant to be._

"As time went by, it is clear that General Ironwood plans for me to become more… militaristic than I was. I am supposed to be an effective substitute for Hunters in their eternal struggle against the Grimm, and he wants to use me as a base to mass produce automatons purely for warlike purposes. My father cannot accept that. After some time, we finally escaped Atlas and came to Vytal, hoping that they would not risk offending an ally just to recapture us. We were naïve. The border between Kingdoms has always been a gray area, and knowing our goal they chose to ambush us there. Our plane was shot down, and father was grievously wounded. We managed to escape all the way to this place before he finally succumbed, and after a short moment of mourning the enemy arrived, and I… killed them all.

My father's last wish is for me to make a friend. It has always been his greatest regret to keep me isolated because of the need for secrecy, and since he can no longer do so, he wishes for me to change that myself. He says to go out and meet someone. Anyone, though preferably close to my age. Then I learn them. Know them. Love them, and one day hope to understand them as deeply as I would myself. He says that this is my final test, and I do not plan to fail his expectations. That is why I chose you two. That is why I want you to stay. That is why I want to be _friends_ with you."

* * *

Yang hid her sigh behind a mask of concentration. It was the end of a long story. It was the lifting of a fog that shrouded much of the mystery behind Penny's past. At the beginning, Yang had been seriously worried that Penny was an unstable being and serious threat after the various bizarre actions she had taken against them. She was still a threat, make no mistake – but Yang finally felt like she had a solid impression of the girl Penny was, and the girl she's striving to become. This was a person that she could understand. Otherworldly she might be, as long her heart was human, she would be able to find a way to connect with Penny and avoid the worst case scenario.

But this wasn't the end. There was still something that felt amiss, but Yang couldn't quite put her hands on them for now. She decided to put the thought on hold and asked quietly,

"Why didn't you just leave this place? It'll be so much easier to honor your father's wish."

"He has enemies. Enemies who are willing to defile his grave to get at his secrets. Of course, they're all inside me," Penny tapped a finger on her head twice, "But they don't know that. Even if they do, they won't stop for greed and paranoia that drive them in the first. I must protect him."

Yang glanced upwards as a steel bird flew past them with a squawk, "I would think the sheer amount of automata here is enough to stop anything. Speaking of which, is this place already like this when you came here? Or did you… build them all yourself?"

"You underestimate the human mind, Yang. You can never be too careful. The cavern and the environment is natural, but yes, I built the rest, only because I have my father's lifetime research in me," Penny confirmed the revelation humbly, though there was just a tinge of proudness at the end of her tone, "It is nothing. You should see the rainbow formation of resource reservoirs underground. Iron, Dust and a tiny amount of sand. I can't tell even now if it's natural or artificially constructed; a true anomaly if I've ever seen one."

Yang did not think the construction of thousands of the most advanced automatons in the world counted in any way as 'nothing'. Still, she supposed that when you're a great anomaly living in an anomalistic world, building tiny little anomalies of her own to populate the world could be considered normal.

"So, what is your decision, Yang? I've told you my history. I've told you my earnest wish. All I wanted is to be friends with you. If you haven't tried to leave so suddenly, I won't have resorted to such crude methods. Please understand, I just can't let go of a chance like this. I promise, once we get to know each other better, you may leave whenever you want. What do you think?" Penny said seriously.

Yang hesitated. Thought carefully and seriously for the first time about the ridiculous invitation that she was so adamant at rejecting before. It certainly sounded like an attractive proposal, and if only Penny could do things a hundred times more normally she might've accepted it despite their unhappy separation yesterday. Still she was cautious,

"Your offer… does it extends to Ruby? You didn't ask her opinion."

Penny glanced downwards, but Ruby was facing the other way and not meeting her eye. She shrugged as if the point was made, "I think that she has something else in mind, but yes, it extends to her as well. But only if she doesn't break the promise later."

… Apparently they both agree that possibility was depressingly high. Yang was tempted to ask if her own offer was separate from Ruby's, _you know, just in case, _but she held the impulse in check and said,

"When you say 'know each other better', exactly how much 'better' do you mean by that? Even my best friend doesn't know that one time I sold her p – uh, I mean, basically there are uh, _stuff _that I prefer not to tell anyoneabout," Yang said quickly while pretending there weren't two laser beams of incredible skepticism unanimously shooting at her direction, "I won't answer questions that I don't wish to answer."

"I will like to say yes, but then if we never touch on sensitive topics at all, how can we truly be friends?"

"You… have a point. I don't suppose you have a checklist that I can refer to –"

"In fact I do!" Penny's eyes lit up like she'd been hoping she'd ask this the entire time, "It will take some time to voice out the data in a comprehensible format, but I will comply if that is your wish. To start things off, we can complete basic tasks such as painting our nails! Try on clothes! Talk about cute boys! Have a Truth-and –"

"Okay I accept; you can totally pass us a copy of the program _later_," Yang added with extra emphasis before she wastes the whole day listing, "anyway, I have one more thing to ask. A request actually."

"What is it?"

"We can stay with you," Yang said slowly, bracing herself for a scathing glare from Ruby but was surprised to find the girl completely unmoved by her declaration. The girl seemed absorbed by something at the far distance, and that was all she knew before she had to turn back to avoid drawing the orange head's attention,

"But we have our own journey to complete, and to be honest we're way past our set date already. So, can we stay for just a week? I believe that's enough time for us to know each other, and as I've said before, friendship… needs both sides to work."

The brawler deliberated her last sentence carefully, and Penny dipped her head both in disappointment and deep thought. Yang could feel her gloves growing damp with sweat. This was it. Instead of a one-sided verdict she aimed for a concession where both sides could profit from a deal, and considering that they were the side that's completely outmatched this literally was the best outcome she dared hope for. _That being said, I should've asked for a shorter duration. What if she wants to take it further? Where do I draw the line, two weeks? Three weeks? A month? God I miss the days when Ren's the one who makes the call and all I need to do is bullshit –_

"Alright."

"Y-yes!?"

"I accept your request, Yang Xiao Long," Penny nodded with a bright smile on her face, and Yang nearly pumped her right fist into the air, "For one week you will stay at my home, and we will get to know each other and hope to be very good friends. Then, you may continue with your mission. Is that correct, or do you wish to add more conditions?"

Even after getting what she wanted, Yang did not forget to scrutinize Penny carefully to glean for any signs of deceit, but she had to conclude after a moment that the orange head was actually sincere. Maybe she could trust her. Of course there's a chance that all this might turn out to be one giant death trap, but between the choice of dying now and dying later, she'd take the one that gives her the best chance at snubbing them both. With her mind decided, Yang breathed out slowly and said –

"_No. We won't need anything from you."_

* * *

Yang's words died inside her throat by the unexpected interruption. Penny's face steepened into a frown, and suddenly tens of silvery green blade appeared out of nowhere to sing like lightning directly towards her. _Oh shit. _She knew it was useless, but still the blonde raised her gauntlets in attempt to block some of the strikes, and as if mocking her efforts the blades easily curved out of the way and continued unhindered. Yang did not close her eyes. If she was going to die she wasn't dying a coward –

The blades stopped just a fraction away from her neck, cheeks, shoulder. It took a while for her to process that none of them were actually aiming at her, but aiming _past _her. It took her even longer to process that she wasn't lying flat on the ground, but on top of a warm body. Red color fluttered lightly at the corner of her eyes, and instinctively she blurted out,

"Ruby!?"

"… You continue to surprise me, Ruby. I didn't think you can squeeze through this level of pressure."

"At a price," Ruby said softly, and Yang noticed that something warm and wet was drenching her back _way too fast_, "A good idea; sharp curves underneath the feet. Had I gone for my gun my stomach would've been torn right open."

"You wouldn't," Penny narrowed her eyes sinisterly as the floating swords shuddered in response, "You may think of her only as your baggage and belonging, but even you wouldn't –"

"One thing people always presume when they see me, I don't know why," Ruby coughed, and suddenly her neck felt drenched with the most uncomfortable dampness. Yang turned around frantically to check on Ruby's condition, but a powerful arm yanked her right back even as a stinging pain erupted without warning from her neck. _Huh? _She looked down. A single knife was propped against her flesh, and her wound was bleeding out droplets of profuse red like roses. Her mind went full blank, "Is that I _couldn't possibly_. They never learn."

"Ruby…?"

The knife worked deeper into her throat, and Yang stopped talking. Ruby continued as if she did not notice the uncontrollable shivering that overtook the blonde's entire body,

"I don't want to do this, so don't make me. Reveal the true exit now, or I _will _kill your precious _friend._"

She wasn't joking.

* * *

**(Day XX, Present Day, 4.21 a.m.)**

BAM!

The first thing Yang noticed was the shadows of two sleeping figures jolting, then the mechanical clinks of their weapons, and finally the utterly crushed ball pen she'd slammed unconsciously against the ground. She let go of the crooked plastic, staring at her bleeding hand in surprise as if she couldn't believe what she'd just done. Ruby and Blake rushed to her side with wary glances at every corner. The younger girl asked,

"What is that about? Did something attack you?"

"Ah… Ahahaha," Yang rubbed her head sheepishly before remembering that it was completely drenched and quickly pulled away, "Er, sorry. I was… stabbing a spider! Yeah! A really huge spider! It suddenly jumped onto the notebook and I reacted. Sorry. Nothing big, you girls can go back to sleep!"

"Yang," Blake deadpanned before she could even hope for a miracle, "I don't see a spider on your hand, or anywhere around you."

"Naw, of course I threw it away immediately after I squashed it! Who in their right mind wouldn't? C'mon, it's no biggie!"

"Even the human here's not blind, Yang. I'm pretty sure we saw –"

"Blake."

Yang smiled just a fraction wider, but the dark-haired girl fell silent immediately. She seemed surprised, almost fearful even, as the blonde continued without a hitch, "I'm _fine_. Thanks for the concern but you don't need to worry about me, okay? I'm going to wash this and come back… soon. Just… go get some sleep. Your shift is still two hours away; don't waste it."

Yang stood up nonchalantly and yawned over her unharmed palm. Then, she walked straight towards the little stream nearby without a word and winced quietly at the jagged amounts of pain that's assaulting her nerves. Despite all that bravado she had to admit that it was an absolutely stupid move. What if she got an infection? What if she damaged her hand in some ways that couldn't heal naturally? Mood swings, bleh. She supposed she really should learn to master her emotion soon, lest one day she accidentally kills herself in the stupidest way possible. That, or shop for more hair moisturizer. The cold was making them dry and cranky as of late. Hah!

She pretended she did not notice her watching, eyes catching every movement like a hawk until finally she slipped behind a tall grass, and let loose an unconscious, and almost relieved sigh.


	13. Chapter 12 - Run, Or Die

**Author's Notes: Busy, busy weeks. Between work, a mobile game event that won't let me sleep more than 6 hours a day, buying my new PC and getting broke, best friend leaving and many, many other things I am tired and was unable to write as good and as quick as I'd like. So in short, so sorry for not being able to post this earlier guys. At least I remedied the inspiration problem with a hefty intake of coffee. **

**The next chapter will be the 'end' of Yang's side of story (... internally I'm screaming at myself for making a Visual Novel-esque decision) as we proceed to Ruby's side of the story. Fortunately Ruby doesn't nearly have the patience to go through all the trouble Yang went to detail her diary - in fact she's never going to write down any of it so she can spare herself the humiliation - so her chapters will be one at minimum or three at best.**

**And finally, there will be Epilogues. Yes, you read correctly. Except for Epilogue 1 the others will be relatively short; mainly used to setup the next plot and save myself some load in the future. Next will probably be the Blake Side Story I've promised (shifty eyes), or the Ruby Rose Personal Arc (shifts eyes further), or hell, maybe even another Interlude (You have the choice to close your eyes and pretend the world and your promise doesn't exist. What is your decision? Click: Yes) showcasing both the expected and the unexpected.**

**So ends this mini rant. Been a while since I did a long one anyway. Read, enjoy, review and stay sharp!**

* * *

_When she betrayed me I was lost._

* * *

**Day 17, 1203**

"What do you think you're doing, Ruby?"

Silence. Deliberate ignorance. Kneeling at a flat plain surrounded by a swirl of smoking ruins, Ruby Rose's only response was to angle her knife and elicit a whimper from her one and only partner, Yang Xiao Long. Her silver eyes betrayed no lies, and her posture spoke of a coiled snake just waiting to spring into a bite. At that point of time, it was without a shred of doubt to everyone that Ruby Rose will send Yang through death's door if Penny showed even the slightest signs of dissent. Had she not been stupefied by the turn of events she would've laughed at a disturbed Penny shaking her head at her in alarm.

"Ruby, please stop this."

The cloaked girl kept quiet. She was never fond of responding pointless talks.

"I do not understand. Yang is my friend, and Yang is also your partner. Just as she is of great value to me, she should be the same to you, too. Just what is it so important that you'll sacrifice her life to escape?"

"… I have wanted to ask this for a while. When did you learn such poisonous way of words?"

The automaton grew silent. Her smile did not falter, but now it gave off the impression that it was a mere paste with no emotion behind it whatsoever. By now Ruby had apparently decided to discard her silent demeanor for the sociable facade used to treat against weapon dealers, except colder and far more unforgiving,

"At any rate, _you_ do not need to worry about _us_. Open the exit."

"I don't think you understand," Penny said in a strangely melodious tone, "As you can see, the exit here is long sealed. It cannot be reopened by any means but brute force."

"So? That doesn't mean it can't be done, and I don't believe it for a second that there's only one exit to the outside world."

"The power and calculation required to perform this feat without causing the implosion of this entire valley is –"

"_Don't do that,_" Ruby cut off the automaton decisively, "I don't know what happened to you, but I _hate _it when you throw that kind of bullshit at me. Stop avoiding the question. Stop hiding yourself behind peel after peel of false truth no one cares! You are not an onion. Is there only one exit in this area, or not? If you won't give me a straight answer we are _done._"

The automaton looked shocked for a moment, almost ashamed by the unexpected outburst from Ruby. But she quickly regained her composure and said, "… Negative. There is more than one functional exit, and before you ask, yes, I do have the authorization to unlock all of them."

"Then do it. Open them now."

Penny's smile deepened, "I repeat, I don't think you understand. I will not comply with that request."

"Oh?" Ruby raised an eyebrow and pulled just enough to draw another icy shudder from her captive, "And why is that? Do you think I won't kill her? I thought you know me. Are you really that naive?"

"The naive one is you, Ruby," Penny said with easy observation, "A hostage is only useful if they're alive. Not to mention your threat is literally meaningless in every sense of the word."

"Sounds interesting. Care to explain why?"

"I am not fast enough to stop you from cutting her throat, true," Penny replied with chilling logicality, "But it is still just the throat. After I subjugate you I can administrate immediate emergency treatment to her wounds, and with luck she won't even scar at the end of the medical procedure. If you truly wanted to threaten me you should have held that blade to the heart or the brain. Now, it is too late for you to change your mind!"

The deadly blades sprung. In an instant they stabbed mercilessly into the apparition of a thousand crimson petals, but Penny did not lose sight of a fleeing Ruby as she manipulated with precise control ten blades at once to trap the girl within a deadly cage of steel. One was injured, and the other completely unharmed with the godly ability to slice a hundred bodies without ever moving a step. Even to the untrained eye it was obvious who was going to win, and sure enough Ruby came to a stuttering halt just seconds after her activation as both the massive blood loss and Yang's dead weight dragged her down like a sack full of iron. Graceful as a conductor, Penny willed every blade in the open to sail true towards their target and skewer her like a pitiful cactus –

"– You shameless crook!"

"I believe… you are mistaken," Ruby imitated Penny's tone mockingly even as she grunted at the exertion, and drew shallow breaths so rapidly it was impressive she could still talk, "This knife is only used to keep Yang from struggling."

Ruby was fast, but people usually chalked it up to her Semblance and underestimated exactly how nimble she truly was. That was why she had no problems brandishing Yang as a meat shield and running circles against the myriad of steel that was trying to kill her. Left, right, a hop over the head and even a skillful kick at the fuller of a sword. It was so simple, and yet brilliant when executed by the speedster.

As she casually shoved the blonde's head to one side Penny was forced to retract a blade in panic, narrowly avoiding piercing the target she was supposed to protect in the eye. Seeing this a sudden twinkle popped above her head and she immediately grabbed a limp arm to swing it around like one would do as a batter. Instantly every one of the swords edged a wide berth backwards to avoid hurting Yang, thus giving the opening Ruby had been hoping for this entire time. Ruby crossed her knife against Yang's neck like a leash, and from her sleeves slipped yet _another _knife to jab it directly at the back of Yang's heart. Penny let slip something dirty with an absolutely furious look etched across her face, and without forgetting to add salt to the wound Ruby offered a most innocent expression and said,

"Well that was fun! But I think I just had my fill of funnies for the day, so do as I ask _now _or I will make a decision that we will both regret. On the count of five. Three. _One –_"

An uneven echo suddenly reverberated from their left, and Ruby cocked her head interestedly to watch the normal-looking platform suddenly unfurl into eight pillars of steel at every vertex of the round edge. A strange glow of aquamarine energy zapped along the numerous circuits etched along its surface as they pulsed, converged before firing a powerful vertical beam each to cut through the stone ceiling above them. At the end of the display a perfectly round ten meters wide hole could be seen, and so cleanly the job was done that not a single scrap of debris could be seen at all. Ruby stared up to the sky, and was immensely satisfied to find it was blue,

"Wonderful. That isn't too hard now, is it?"

* * *

_It was a strange feeling indeed to be bartered about between two individuals like a fish on the chopping board. Stranger still was how I remembered every moment with such crystal clear clarity that I can recite every word with the exact intonation they used._

_How lucky my heart died before it can feel the pain._

* * *

Penny gritted her teeth and glared furiously at Ruby. Her mistake was especially obvious after the deed was done. It was not the wrong move to pressure a heavily injured adversary and end the situation quickly, especially with the element of surprise with her. It was however definitely a mistake to treat Ruby like the common heroic Huntress, and worse her own lack of determination to end Ruby's life even at the risk of incapacitating her rescue target.

"I've opened the gates. Now let Yang free and go away!"

"I will. But first, hand over Crescent Rose."

"Oh, you are _so greedy –_"

"I hardly think it _greedy_ to demand what's mine in the first place, and do you think I trust you not to attack me once I pass her over? Stop complaining and hand over my baby already."

"So your gun is more important than your own partner. How heartless."

Ruby simply and pushed the knife deeper. As Yang elicited a gasp, Penny finally zipped her mouth and reluctantly did as was told. The brunette took the opportunity to examine the swords still surrounding her, seemingly curious about their unnatural workings and mechanisms. Upon close inspection there seemed to be super thin metallic strings that connected each blade to Penny. And yet it wouldn't explain what force that sang the blades freely as if they had a life of their own, and it certainly did not made no sense how the sword could lift a weapon at least five times its weight before flinging it over in easy defiance of gravity. Anyone who had seen Ruby's sniper scythe would know that it was no lightweight.

Ruby watched the spinning metal carefully, making sure that there wasn't a trick or trap installed upon her rifle before releasing Yang's neck to catch the weapon. As expected the momentum immediately pulled her backwards, and she leaned on one side in attempt to minimize its effect on her form. It wasn't enough. Despite boasting a firm grasp her barely healed wounds tore open immediately in a flood of blood, and the young girl swayed as if she would faint on the spot. But Ruby held on to her feet, and the knife never strayed away from her heart as the automaton clicked audibly under her tongue. "One more step," Yang could hear her whispering under her breath, "Just one more."

But Penny wasn't ready to cave in like an obedient slave, and before they knew it the counterattack had already begun, "Ruby, I have an offer."

"What?"

"You remember the natural rock pillar that was here? The one you climbed up a few hundred feet to escape?" Penny said casually, "Naturally, it has been replaced with this levitation portal _I _control, and you are free to use it and reach back up the surface. However, I estimate that there is a 64 percent chance that you won't like to use it."

Ruby's frown did not cease. She did not like it that Penny was leading the negotiation, "You just shot a giant laser with that 'portal' and evaporated a few tonnes of earth. No."

"I thought so. Therefore I will like to offer you an alternative. I can build you a pathway; a physical bridge that will lead you right to the top," Penny said, "There are more than enough materials around us, but I will disassemble the portal itself to build it as a proof of integrity. What do you say?"

"… You will do this in exchange for Yang, I assume?"

"Of course. You do not have a choice. If you refuse my gracious offer I will take you down even at the risk of losing Yang."

The sudden, bold threat threw Ruby off guard as she consciously shifted into a defensive stance, "I will escape, and she will die. You do that you lose both of us."

"With proper maintenance I can live for a very, very long time, Ruby," the orange head's eyes glinted with cold absolution, "I can wait for another friend who isn't so hard to… please. Also, I think you have misjudged my capabilities. Yes, there is a risk that Yang will die if you stab her through the heart.

But it is a _low _risk," Penny's smile widened at the opposite of her expression happening over Ruby's, "A mere probability inherent in any kind of medical operation. Excluding that, I am fully equipped to sustain Yang's life long enough to install an artificial heart within ten minutes max. Of course I do not wish to cause my friend unnecessary sufferance, but if I am _forced _to do soby _your_ hand… You understand, don't you?"

The hand that wielded the knife suddenly shivered, though not from emotion but the weakness of the body. The price of escaping Penny's grasp had almost been too high, and even now the girl looked to black out any second and doom all her efforts to failure. Even she knew there had to be a catch; somewhere along there must be a deadly trick or a thousand that might slip through despite all of Ruby's defenses. And yet the girl couldn't afford to dawdle, it was now or never. Ruby breathed out audibly, and gave Penny a nod. The automaton grinned and set to work immediately.

Penny bowed slowly with her open arms stretched towards the earth before turning as still as a statue. There was a momentary silence, a missing gap in time. Then, all hell broke loose. Suddenly a thousand threads exploded from behind Penny as they illuminated the sky in white, before they sank all at once into the ground as if they were nonphysical. The ground shook once, twice before rumbling in an incessant rhythm that grew stronger and stronger until even the very picture of one's sight became completely blurred, and standing straight a task as impossible as resurrecting the dead. The conjuror herself seemed unaffected by the earthquake, as was the surrounding swords that hovered so still they might as well be a separate entity altogether from this universe. Yang was pushed flat on the ground as Ruby sat on her back with her thighs squeezing so hard to stay upright that a weaker person would've broken a few ribs already. In all honesty even in a prone position neither girls could take the shaking much longer, and with face complete white Ruby looked ready to cleave Penny in half before she blacked out from the rough jostling of her wounds.

And then it died. All of them. The groans of the earth, the shaking, the sound of nature being whipped into a frenzy – everything had simply ceased to exist except the sound of their own heartbeat, and the air passing through their lips. What happened next was so mesmerizing one could almost forget the fact that it defied the laws of physics, that it was a definite impossibility. One by one the pillars detached themselves from the base before splintering into equal parts of eight; then sixty four, then a hundred twenty eight until finally they became threads so thin they might as well don't exist, and too alike not to be the same kind that Penny had ejected from her torso. At the same time the platform base had dissolved suddenly into the ground; a slow but striking process where they spiral uniformly downwards like powdered sand until it formed a deep, black hole where no light could be seen.

But even more amazing was that there was not even the slightest sound during the whole deconstruction process; like they were watching an unreal movie and someone forgot to turn on the speaker. Ruby looked particularly disturbed by the strange phenomenon as she shuffled restlessly on her knees while clearing her ears again and again to no avail.

It was not yet the end. The once-pillars were tall but their foundations were at least thrice the length, and for every fixed size the threads automatically split away to form many tiny strings that, although broken, were somehow floating in midair as if charged by some strange anti gravitational power. It was not an exaggeration to say that they were held together by an unseen hand; a vast yet delicate network capable of the tiniest and the largest of atomic manifestations.

When did she come to life? When they finally noticed Penny was already long into motion, elbows bent and shuffling feet and outstretched palms suddenly _swaying_ along a strange dance that made Yang thought out of the blue of a spinning wheel. Her eyes were glazed; it was as if she had transmogrified into a completely unknown entity. Not one ounce of individuality or the quirkiness that usually accompanied the pitiless droid could be seen whatsoever. She spun as she turned, and she turned as she spun again and again until she was more parts than complete, more like cogs than the humanoid machine she claimed to be.

But she was more than that. She was the will. She was the driving force that helped shaped this tiny, impossible world into existence, and she would prove it by performing this _tiny yet miraculous_ feat right before the witness' eyes. One by one the broken strings converged among themselves to form balls and squares, blocks and pieces before they joined again to form something even bigger until finally, they had what seemed to be a gigantic black-colored box even larger than the original platform.

Still it was just a box. The job halted abruptly, and Ruby waited until she couldn't before betraying a clear look of skepticism and disappointment. That must be the reaction Penny was looking for, because at that exact moment the box chose to land on all four at the hole's edge before _exploding _into many ribbons of pure black substance, spiralling upwards again and again like a dragon until it finally pierced through the opening and reached the surface. The same happened to the black limb stretched before them as it began morphing rapidly into a most recognizable shape.

There was a boom, a shudder, some odd scratchy noise that sounded like nails across a board. Then there was duo blinked once to find a perfectly fine and black staircase fit snugly in front of them, complete with a two meters tall handhold and a 'Welcome OUT' board swaying lightly on the left side of the entrance. Ruby frowned hard at the sign, and the deed was done.

* * *

_But I'm not really dead. Not really. Eventually the pain started again as it slithered up my heart and squeeze just a bit tighter, every single time. I was scared. I didn't think I can fall apart a second time and still be me. _

* * *

"Are you – satisfied – construction?"

Ruby swung her rifle backwards – nearly tripping on one side of her weakened leg – and from the half-crouched position aimed a crosshair at the center of Penny's face. The young girl betrayed nothing, but it was obvious she had neither heard the automaton for she would never have allowed her to get so close from the back. The automaton smiled, but for some reason it felt distinctively inorganic and unnerving to look at. The answer was revealed immediately as Penny said in an equally artificial voice,

"Grand system activate – injection of Dust – temporary 500% boost to all functionality – have to free most processes to accommodate – but you don't need to worry, I am not one to go against my promise."

It took a while, but the orange head finally regained a human tone, and even offered a special barb reserved only for Ruby, but unlike before the young girl responded not a single word. It would seem that the supernatural events had somehow triggered her quiet nature again as every expression became vanished behind a mask of utter coolness. The brunette stood up slowly, carefully, eyes never missing neither the automaton nor missing the hovering blades that were rotating slow circles around her. Penny favored her with an exasperated yet deadly smile before saying,

"I have uphold my end of the deal. I believe it is time to do yours."

"… Yes."

And that was it. Ruby slowly rose to her full height, then backed away a step. The brunette turned to look at the still unresponsive Yang – _was that a hint of disturbance there in her eyes? No, of course not –_ then at the hovering blades closest to her before saying,

"Move."

"Of course."

Penny acquiesced as she let loose a path through the wall of blades, and Ruby wasted no time at all to leap out of the encirclement. She backed slowly, her wariness obvious even through a perfect mask as she half-turned towards the exit and backed with a scissor's stride, but Penny didn't even look at her. Then she broke into a run. Then she skipped out of sight and vanished in a flourish of petals. She was gone. _Gone. _This was perhaps the last time she was going to see her. _Forever._

Heaving a sigh of relief, Penny trod quickly towards Yang and helped the blonde to a sitting position. The green-dressed girl stared directly into her eyes and said,

"Yang, You're free. She won't hurt you any longer. Isn't that great?"

"..."

"Are you okay? Oh, you poor thing, has the shock not left you yet? Never mind, we'll slowly get you back to your normal self, okay? C'mon. Hold my hand."

Penny lent out a palm, and settled in for a long wait. After a full ten minutes, with a sluggish, almost mechanical swing of the head, Yang looked down at the extended, inviting palm, then into Penny's sincere eyes, then at her own right palm before lifting the gloved hand and stared as if she would burn a hole through it. Finally she extended it towards Penny's, and -

– slapped it away, before breaking into the fastest run she ever had in her life.

"… Yang?"

* * *

_So I did the only thing I can do__._

* * *

"Yang!?"

* * *

_I ran away._

* * *

**"_YANG!"_**

* * *

**(Day XX, Current Time, 4.12 a.m.)**

"Wha!?"

On hindsight, she totally should've seen it coming. One moment she was absentmindedly cleaning the blood and splinters out of her hand at the riverside, and the next she found herself struggling against a big black thing which she barely recognized as the most gigantic alligator she'd ever seen. She was insanely lucky to have dodged the deadly clamp onto her legs, but since she had been sitting at the bank with both feet submerged underwater, her lower body strength was rendered completely useless. The animal quickly pulled its entire body length over her, trying to wrench free its jaw while at the same time drag her back into the river by sheer mass alone. Either choices did not make it to her wish list. Yang huffed and puffed as she pressed both palms to keep the damn thing's mouth _shut_, but she was having problems trying to wriggle herself out of its sheer weight. At this rate she's going to get crushed first before it ran out of energy, and –

"… What are you doing?"

"– Ruby!?"

She saw the red girl sitting gingerly on top of a branch, with one fist propped onto one cheek and a pair of calm argent eyes piercing deep into her own. From topside down with the full moon kissing at the tip of her cheeks, the sight was so fantastical that Yang momentarily forgot about her predicament and just stared. But then her grasp loosened at the distraction, and the devious beast seized the opportunity to pull its jaws away before writhing powerfully in attempt to roll her into the river. She quickly caught it again before it could muster a proper posture to bite, but the stink of its rotten mouth nearly caused her to gag and vomit. Worse, she felt the beginning of a crumble about the soft muddy underneath her butt, and the blonde panicked,

"_Agh fuck off you stupid monster! _And Ruby, what the hell are you waiting for? Help _meeeohhhgoooddddaaAAAAHHH!_"

The young girl squinted a little, as usual evaluating the situation at her own leisure until finally, she asked with genuine curiosity,

"Why?"

"Why? I'm about to be eaten here and you're saying OW FUCKING HELL JUST HELP ME ALREADY!"

"But this isn't something you can't handle."

"Hah!?"

"This isn't a Demon. It is not even a Grimm. Stop wasting time and get rid of it already. It's _your _shift."

"… RRRAAAAARRGGHH!"

Yang let go. It was of course a risky move, as demonstrated triumphantly by the beast as it pulled back a little before snapping forwards at her head quick as lightning. But it was also her only chance. The moment she freed her hands Yang cocked back her right arm as best she could before jamming it down hard at the bottom of its jaw. There was a click, _kacha, _and a boom as the shotgun gauntlet did its job to blow the bellowing beast right back into the river. Yang seized the opportunity to scramble back up sweet mother earth before glaring at the river with seething red eyes. She almost wanted the damn thing to come at her again so she could make one hundred percent sure to fry it next time. But it was gone. She had survived.

Seeing that the small fiasco had ended, Ruby landed silently behind her back walking up to the blonde's side. Then, she said,

"That isn't too hard now, is it?"

"_You _try and get yourself pulled under by a fatass alligator," Yang replied sarcastically.

"I can never be dumb enough to get caught in the first place. Or be so panicky not to realize my weapon can blow it across the street."

The blonde clutched her heart and pretended to comically faint like the ladies of an olden novel, but she quickly regained her composure and touched a twitchy finger to her cheek. Soon, she gave in and let loose a sigh. It had to be asked.

"So… You've read my diary."

It wasn't a question. She usually would not say something like that.

"Yes."

"At least try to deny it! You just admitted to invading my privacy!"

"I am worried about you," Ruby said with not a hint of falseness behind her words, "You acted really strange back then, so I decided to check things out and help you, if I can. Is it wrong?"

The accusatory notes died at the sincerity behind those eyes, "Well… if you put it that way… but it's still not good to flip through someone's diary, okay? This is private stuff. Promise me you won't do this again in the future?"

"… I'll think about it."

Yang groaned, but could not help from a wry smile. She flipped both hands behind her head and scrunched her nose in disgust when she felt mud sticking inside her hair. But she thought better of entering the river again and simply fell lightly on her back, glancing thoughtfully towards the moon.

"We need to talk about that day. The day I ran away."

She was surprised to find the request slipping out of her own mouth.

"Are you sure?" Askance instead of the immediate, selfish decision. Ah, how far she had come.

"I need to. Don't go soft on me now, I'll get scared and forget about everything."

"Okay. But I meant the other audience."

Ruby pointed at the tree she was hanging before, and sure enough, Blake Belladonna slipped out of the shadows with Yang's diary in her hand. The blonde looked on aghast before covering her face in exasperation,

"Am I the weird one here? Is there no such thing as privacy when you're out adventuring!?"

"She read it," Blake said as if that was the answer to everything. Yang couldn't dig her face into her palm deeper. So the woman might seem mature on the outside, but she was actually _incredibly _childish when it comes to a grudge. Didn't a certain someone complained one night all about her vengeful nature?

"So does that mean I can take some tampons from both of you? You know, since I ran out yesterday –"

"No." "If you don't mind being dead."

It was pretty much what she'd expected from these two. Still she couldn't resist a sigh. Someday she would be boss and make these two little runts do some crazy embarrassing stuff that they'll _never_ forget. Hah! Probably never going to happen, but a girl can dream all she wants.

"Fine. I'll talk. But after that, Ruby, I want you to tell me what happen after we separated."

The girl looked surprised for a second before switching immediately into a distasteful frown, "What? Why?"

"Because you never told me what happened? Because you want to help me? Because it's only _fair? _Because –"

"Okay, okay!" Ruby caved just seconds after Yang began her rant, and the blonde hid a wicked grin knowing that the poor girl still had traumas from the days she bugged her like a vengeful spirit. Almost too quietly the young girl muttered to herself, "It's worse than soap opera."

"Now then," Yang pretended that she didn't hear her – lest she couldn't control herself from teasing and get hanged on a tree – and started on the trail of memory as Ruby sat herself just a little away from her shoulders. As Blake passing the diary back to the blonde while facing the river upright, she began to speak "About that day. The day I…"


	14. Author's Note

**Author's Note:**

Hello, fellow readers! First things first, this story is still ongoing. I have no plans to stop writing and do plan to release the new chapter within the month (… hopefully). The reason for this unprecedented delay is due to a few things: One, work has started to pick up during this time of the year and when I'm back home usually I'm too tired to give the piece a good shining. Next is that I've changed into a new rig just three weeks ago, and uh, yeah, was gaming just a little harder than usual? I mean come on, if you spent huge money on a new computer won't you want to enjoy it? Right…?

*gets pelted by eggs*

The third reason is more a bit complex. As I've said, this chapter is the climax of the story. Moreover, Yang's feelings are becoming unpredictable. It's… hard trying to decide whether to focus more on her change of emotions, or the main flow of the story, when to employ some change of POVs to make it come together nicer and so on. It makes me somewhat annoyed at myself for restricting to just Yang's PoV, because that means I cannot describe their reactions or feelings without them being completely out of place.

And then there's this… fading of interest/motivation/attention? Towards RWBY in general. Used to be that Monty Oum will send us interesting Tweets from time to time, and I've just recently realized how important they are at keeping the imagination alive. Keeping a character in character is fortunately my forte (although ironically I have an OOC Ruby that I plan to eventually grow up to an in character Ruby), but keeping the writing inspiration alive after being starved of source materials for such a long time is… hard. The updated RWBY game staves away some of the thirst, but it isn't nearly enough…

So, please be a little patient. This story has not ended yet, and as long as Team RWBY keeps running I have no plans to stop writing RWBY even if my priorities have shifted to something else. So ends this mini blog of my own, and good day.

Internal


	15. Side A Final Chapter - Unforgettable Sin

**Author's Note:**

**Well, it has been a looong wait. With this Side A is done, and god, I probably won't be working on Side B until a Volume 3 comes out. The sheer emotional effort is... well, I won't bore you with words, since there's 11 thousand of them for you all to go through.**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

**Day 17, 1230. The Unforgettable Sin**

_... Ran away._

Yang sped blazingly along the pitch black staircase in quite literal fashion, with flames encircling her body and hair shining like the sun she didn't notice until she was halfway up the structure. She knew that she was pushing herself excessively, and that she would probably run out of gas in minutes if she didn't clamp down on her output now. She didn't care. She ran as if she could outrun the sudden pain bursting inside her heart; ran as if she could outrun every invisible burden until she was free of even herself.

But despite all her power, she discovered that she could not even escape the voice.

"Yang! Yang!"

_Shut up._

"Why are you running? That is not the right direction!"

_Get the hint already._

"Yang, did I do something wrong? Please, tell me!"

"_Just leave me alone!"_

The footsteps faltered. Even Yang felt her eyes bulged in shock before she clamped a hand over her own mouth and ran faster than ever before. _I'm sorry I didn't mean to say that I – I! _She willed for the nightmare to end right there and then, but then the voice rang again as if from the depths of hell,

"You are hurt, Yang. I can help you."

"I don't _need _your help! I don't want to hear anything you, or Ruby, or _anyone_ have to say right now, so just shut the fuck up and _fuck off!_"

"Yang, my sensors indicate that your mind is destabilizing rapidly. Forceful exertion in such a way will only make things worse. You need to –"

"_**I SAID SHUT – UP!"**_

Abruptly the blonde turned around, smashing a leg against the alloy stairs before launching a flying fist directly at the young girl's face. Penny looked up in surprise before raising a hasty cross guard, but the full power of Yang's punch easily blew the orange head clean over the faraway fence until she dropped over to the other side. For a second the blonde felt her whole body awash with hot white triumph – she had just scored a solid _hit_ onto this neigh invincible, seemingly godlike automaton – but the consequences of her action poured over the head instantly like a bucket of ice. Her throat felt raw. _What did I do? Did I just… kill…? _Almost unconsciously the blonde rushed over to look down through the large gaps of the fence, all the while trying to ignore the panic rumbling inside her stomach,

"Penny…?"

There were blades. Just as Yang leaned her head over the fence two silvery green blades spun from below to encircle her shoulders multiple times before she could react. Dazzled by the glowing swords slamming into the floor like a pair of nails, she never noticed the threads until they squeezed around her shoulders and pulled with such unbelievable force that she nearly slipped right through the gap between the fences. Her Aura held for a mere two seconds before the strings cut through the flesh, and amidst the explosive pain it was a miracle that she somehow had the sense to hold on and keep herself from falling. But even the slightest jolt of movements was agony enough to send her teetering towards a dead faint, and that source of her misery was now hanging low at the bottom of the stairwell; body swaying with hands at hips and lips pursed in righteous anger,

"Forgive me, but you gave me no other choice. Now, please stop resisting and let yourself fall."

"Are you crazy!? I'm not…!"

"I'll catch you. Yang, please. I know you're terribly hurt, and I'm sorry that I'm adding to your pain, but throwing a tantrum will only make things worse. You understand that, don't you?"

"I..."

"_I _can help you recover. _I _can keep you safe. I swear that I won't let any harm come to you ever again, but first, you have to let me help you. So please, Yang… Come with me."

Abruptly, Yang stopped struggling. Even the shudders that racked her weakened body seemed to vanish altogether. Quietly, she murmured,

"… If I go with you, you'll help me?"

"Affirmative."

"You'll protect me? Make sure that nothing ever hurts me again?"

"Affirmative."

"… Hahaha. Ha."

"… What are you doing?"

She didn't answer. Yang closed her eyes as the rising flames enveloping her body suddenly vanished, but not gone. Instead her torso started to flash on and off like a firefly, the energy building up within her body knocking harshly against the barriers of her soul screaming to be released, but she ignored all of the warning signs and persevered. Alarmed, the automaton tried to distract her with zigzags of white hot pain, but ironically it only caused her anger and energy levels to rise that much faster. As if urged by the raging Aura her injuries suddenly began to rewind rapidly to its unblemished state, and even the strings that had severed deep into the bones were slowly but surely being pushed out of the wound. Penny realized her intentions too late as the blonde crossed both arms to the side to grab hold of the neigh invisible threads, and yanked with every bit of energy inside her arms. They broke apart as easily as wet tissue. Immediately Penny dropped down a few inches, but came to a quick halt as the rest of her invisible anchors took hold.

"– Why, Yang?" the automaton asked sadly.

She didn't answer immediately. Instead the blonde casually stretched her arms, stared at the offending black fence blocking in front of her before launching suddenly a loud, explosive kick. In an instant the whole structure was ripped right off the hinges before it fell towards the faraway ground. She spoke quietly as she watched it fall,

"Did you know? For my whole life, I have lived inside a cage. As the only child I have an important name to uphold, an honor to protect, a responsibility that I thought I would shoulder my entire life. It's not like I'm faulting my parents or anything, but for the longest time, I couldn't help but wish that I was free to do whatever I wanted to do; to live my life however I liked.

But then Ruby came. She changed everything. If it wasn't for her I would've died, and my whole city with me. Even better, the Demon's death finally convinced my Da to release me from my responsibilities, to give me the freedom that I've always wanted. _Snap._ Can you imagine how happy I was? I can never forget the day I raced up the hill like a horse, hoping beyond hope to catch up to Ruby before she left and saw her just chilling under the sun, waiting for me to join her… it was truly one of the best moment in my life."

She paused, eyes sparkling with emotion as she relieved the memories. They shone bright, dark, darkest, bright and finally… now. Penny shuddered visibly as if she'd seen something forbidden, but Yang showed no signs of noticing as she continued,

"So I find it strange then, that I'm not happy. I'm living the dream I've always dreamed of, aren't I? Remnant is more beautiful than I can ever imagine, and I absolutely should be having the time of my life! And I did! So… Why did it turn out like this? When did the magic start to fade? Is it back when I tried to apologize to Ruby and got completely ignored? Or is it the time when I almost got myself killed and she gave me that terrible look of disappointment? Or maybe it was as early as the time I nearly drowned at the mines… that's right. It felt like drowning. Doing the things I don't want to do, not saying the things I really want to say, all for the sake of preserving a false friendship. In the end I couldn't even recognize my own feelings, much less the true face of my partner. Hahahaha! I feel so pathetic that I want to kill myself._ Hahahahahaha!"_

"Yang… you can still change this. I told you, I won't –"

"_Shut up."_

Maybe it was because she acted too fast, too unexpected, or too foolish even to her own mind, but Penny failed to react when she leaped right off the ledge. As twin bursts of fire exploded behind Yang she propelled downwards like a missile, and suddenly the automaton found a pair of legs crushing into her stomach with immense force. Face scrunched up in pain Penny tried to shove the blonde away, but she was quick to slip behind Penny's back and wrapped an arm around one shoulder in a vice-like hold. At this point there was nothing Penny could do even with her enormous strength, and with a wicked snarl Yang punched with everything she had into a single point of the girl's ribs.

_BAM! _A terrible noise resounded throughout the whole space, and unexpectedly it was Yang who reeled away from the abject pain of punching full force into unbending steel. Clearly she still held some illusions about Penny's humanity and thought she'd be as soft as a human. It was a good reminder. _BAM! _This time she felt keenly a few finger bones shattering under the terrific impact, but still she refused to give up as she channeled everything she had, until even her vision become tarnished by a red, bloody hue and swung down one more time–

"– Oomph!"

The world tumbled abruptly like a colorful spinner, and without a real way to slow down all she could do was to brace herself as she slammed hard onto solid wall. Still she could not resist a savage chuckle as she wiped the blood from her lips and stood up to her feet. Up ahead, Penny had landed herself at the edge and was acting to walk closer, before Yang stopped her with the most hostile glare she could gather. For a moment, the opponent looked horribly saddened and disbelieving as she exclaimed,

"You tried to destroy me!"

"Oh? And you've only realized this now?"

"But why? Why, Yang Xiao Long? I'm just trying to be your friend! Why are you doing this to me!?"

"You still don't get it? I ran away because you cannot give me what I want, and now I'm _killing _you because you're standing in the god damn way! Isn't that what the two of you taught me? To just take everything I want, and by force if I have… no… _want _to?"

"No! I don't mean… I… I can give you anything. We don't need to do this. But you need to tell me, because how else will I know what is it you truly desire!?"

"_I want to be free."_

Yang didn't wait. In a flash she was upon her, throwing a deadly fist right into the girl's stomach while simultaneously hooking her across the asphalt. Looking as if her thought process had short-circuited, Penny did not even react as Yang lifted her up with a grunt and threw her towards the very wall she just slammed into. The heavy _thunk_ and crash seemed to finally snap Penny awake as she staggered unevenly back to her feet, but with an easy swipe of the right leg Yang fell her once more before sitting down firmly on her waist. Coldly she said,

"I understand now. I want to be free, and that is the one thing you, or Ruby, can _never_ give to me, not as long as you want to tie me down with your false pretense of a friendship. Maybe you truly meant well. I know you don't understand."

Yang cocked back her right arm, just as she saw a flash of fear passing through Penny's eyes. For a split second she hesitated, but the moment the pain rushed back her heart turned to stone, and she swung down.

"I'm sorry."

* * *

_Huh?_

Yang blinked. _Am I… flying?_ It definitely seemed so from the way the air's whooshing past her ears, and yet for the life of her she couldn't remember ever growing the pair of wings needed to do such a feat. _Wait, the sky? That can't be right, I should be stuck inside a cavern! One with hundreds and thousands of robots and their seriously overpowered leader –_

"_Tsssssskkkk! _Hah! Hah! Hah!" Clutching at her collapsed chest and gasping from the sudden, immense pain that erupted the moment she regained the ability to breath, Yang finally recalled the memory that literally was blown away from her mind seconds ago and felt her blood run cold as ice. Right before she could land what would be the decisive strike, an impossibly terrible premonition of danger caused her to change course just in time to deflect a sudden punch from the grounded Penny. But against every common sense it was she she found her own guard blown away like it was made of paper, and when the seemingly pathetic blow struck her dead center at the chest she… she drew a complete blank. She had literally no memory of the tens of seconds she spent shooting through the sky. It was that powerful. A miracle the blow hadn't punched right through her chest.

_She fought back. Of course she did. I should have crushed her throat the moment I had her pinned. Instead I let my self-pity took over and talked loads of bullshit. What the fuck was I thinking?_

But there was no time for regrets. As her ascent declined quickly Yang peeked towards the black tower tens of meters away from her and knew that she had to act fast. Using Ember Celica as a booster, she fired her weapon repeatedly in an attempt to maneuver herself towards the circular stairway before she lost all momentum and succumbed to gravity. Meanwhile Penny had risen into the open, glaring upwards with angry emerald eyes and scaling the outer structure using her thread-and-swords like external limbs with uncanny speed. Even before she landed Yang knew that she wasn't going to make it to the surface before Penny caught up to her, so the moment she slammed-and-rolled heavily onto the staircase, she gritted through the pain and started a mad run towards the top.

Ultimately her goal was to escape from the girl, and she wasn't nearly intoxicated enough to think that she could beat Penny even if she magically had a dragon, a war fleet, and a ton of explosives to boot. There was more than enough to indicate that the automaton was practically half a god in this world, and the only thing she could do was to break through the surface and pray that whatever resolve Penny made to stay here was binding enough to keep her hunting her down like a rabbit. At least her unusual strength had stunned Penny into cautiousness, but that only meant that the tiny, tiny edge would last until the girl scoped out her limit. She needed to run faster.

_My strength, is it? _Yang pressed a hand towards her chest, wincing only a little as a bone popped against the skin but felt otherwise perfectly fine despite having her chest caved in on her just minutes ago. It was common knowledge that Aura would heal minor injuries or scars when activated, and there were definitely Defensive Semblances that could resuscitate even the deadest person as long as they had a breath left inside them. Yang Xiao Long however was a pure offensive melee type fighter, and while that does mean her endurance is higher than most she could hardly mend a flesh wound, much less perform a miraculous regeneration only a dedicated Healer could achieve. Even stranger, her Aura levels were absolutely off the charts – while it wasn't as strong as the time she destroyed the Demon's core, she still felt damn near close enough to crush a whole boulder like it's made of tofu. Seriously, what on Remnant was happening to her? Power ups didn't just happen randomly to anyone, and this was nothing like anything she'd ever heard before. Was she burning her life like her mother did? Was she going to drop dead the moment she ran out of juice?

She didn't know. All she could do was to keep running.

"Subjugation Mode activated. You will have no warnings. Discard all resistances and surrender immediately."

Somehow Penny's voice transmitted true and clear promising unveiled threat despite being quite far away, but it barely fazed Yang as she redoubled her efforts to scale the stairway as quickly as humanly possible. Still it wasn't quick enough to outrun the automaton, and Yang felt her heart beat faster as she listened unwillingly to the distant _chink_s of Penny's blades growing closer and closer. She was going to be have to make a stand. The blonde forced herself to run for two more rounds – all the while bracing for the blows that _surely would hit me through the floor surely she's in range why isn't she attacking why where WHY _– before screeching finally into a halt. Defiantly she glared towards the open air with both fists raised and…

… And there was nothing. The blonde blinked once, twice, and several more, but no matter where she looked every trace and noise had vanished as if the girl was never there. Instantly she understood that she was in great danger. _Shit! I _hate _playing hide-and-seek! I hate it even more when the seeker's the one's hiding!_Step by step, Yang dragged her feet slowly up the stairs, all the while keeping a solid wall behind her back while watching closely at every other direction. Up, down, left, right, down, move – _Scrak._ It was very possible that Penny would strike her from below and _through _the metallic floor; the automaton was fully capable of such a feat. _Scraaak – Tat! _But she would not surprised. She had formulated in her mind exactly how she wanted to counter the attempt, and still be flexible enough to react towards attacks coming from any other direction. An inexperienced combatant like Penny was not going to outwit her. _Scrak!_

That supreme confidence was why she failed to notice the pair of hands appearing _through _the wall from directly behind her. The moment they tightened forcefully around her throat and mouth, it was already too late.

"Gagg_kk – MMMRRRRRGGHHHH!?_"

There was no resisting. One moment she was falling uncontrollably towards the back, feeling first her head _sinking _into something soft before the rest of her body followed suit, and then… there was only utter darkness. She couldn't move, couldn't breathe, could barely even think as fear ripped from her chest ways she never thought possible. This was how it felt to be frozen in ice, except that it was a million times more claustrophobic and terrifying. _She's drowning me, inside the wall! _The pair of hands continued to tighten around her neck, an obvious mockery of her helplessness and inability to raise even a finger to save her own life. And yet what could she do? There was no way she could break out of this steely prison. Penny had already proved that her strength was far more formidable than any average Huntsman could possibly achieve. She was going to die. She would suffocate within this absolute darkness, and along with it all her hopes and dreams to live free. Forever.

"_No!"_

A spark kindled, ran, and suddenly the tiny world detonated in a flash of white that washed away every darkness until they were no more. The massive steel column stretched, groaned as if it was the end of the world before _evaporating _from the inside out in face of the sheer white inferno that was Yang Xiao Long. Not even the ultimate automaton could withstand the heat, as Penny leaped almost frantically away from Yang before glaring as if the blonde was her father's murderer. By the time the flames faded away nearly half the diameter of the column was gone, with Yang kneeling dead center of the carnage, breathing heavily and completely worn out. It was lucky the pillar held strong and did not collapse on her, because she literally had no energy left to move even a finger.

Or so she thought. The back of her head prickled, and instinctively the blonde dove sideways to dodge the flat side of a blade swooshing past from behind. As more blades flew in Yang rolled again and again on the floor until she finally got back up to her feet and ran immediately for the exit. Apparently her mysterious source of power hasn't abandoned her yet! But Penny was no longer playing, and with a loud crack the automaton leaped at least fifty meters over Yang's head to land on the stairs right above her. Like a terrible goddess countless blades emerged out and surrounded the space around Penny; their every tip pointed menacingly at Yang's direction. Her expression said everything. For an instant Yang felt a strange wave of sadness passed through her, but she brushed it away and grasped her fists defiantly. This was it. This was her final fight towards freedom!

"… Hah!"

Seizing the initiative, Yang ran forwards fearlessly until she was five steps away when ten blades shot out at once like a shower of pellets. But having prepared herself for such a strike, the brawler merely shifted a few inches out to dodge most of them while deflecting the rest easily with her gauntlets. In an instant she had zipped through the hail of blades to arrive directly in front of Penny, and without pause she struck out like lightning at the neck, elbows, wrists and knees before ducking beneath a novice punch and drove a knee right into Penny's stomach. The blonde frowned a little before throwing a devastating hand chop towards the small girl's neck – which Penny threw both hands to block by reflex, and subsequently opened herself to an even more powerful kick to the chest. Yang could hardly hide the glint of a devious smile; apparently Penny really was as poor of a fighter as she claimed to be. So what if the automaton was built like a tank? If she could not protect herself then she was just a punching bag, and Yang worked hard to generate such immense pressure that the girl could not even think to use her threads effectively.

And it was working. Penny appeared entirely reliant on her string-and-blades, and her close quarter combat skills were just abysmally lacking. Even as Yang closed the distance until they were barely a few inches apart, smashing her fists again and again at Penny's weak points until they creaked constantly like nails across a board, the automaton could do nothing but back off again and again. Yang wasn't stupid after all – there's a reason why Penny defeated Ruby despite being so obviously lacking. She must take her down as fast as possible. With a twist and turn, Yang shifted herself behind Penny and fell the automaton with a sharp kick to the knee. Then, with every strength in her body she threw a thunderous punch at the back of the automaton's neck, hoping to disable Penny permanently with this single strike. Even if Penny had the skin of a Goliath, Yang refused to believe that the automaton could still fight after having her neck broken in half!

But she did not get a chance to confirm the theory. Just as her fist was about to land, Penny suddenly fell towards the ground and missing the blow entirely. Yang frowned as the orange head wobbled unsteadily in a pathetic flail, and she kicked out one more time with the intention of sending her flying down the stairs. But once again Penny rolled onto her sides and ducked beneath the blow, and Yang's eyes widened. Her instincts were screaming something. Was it just her imagination, or had she seen that move somewhere before…?

She did. Against all expectations, Penny suddenly dashed into her bosom before unleashing a sharp one-two combo that shattered her ribs like rotten wood. Without waiting for her to recover, the automaton immediately followed up with a sharp knee to the chin, missed, then transitioned into a straight kick that had Yang kissing the ground just to avoid having her brain bashed out of her head. _These moves… they're the Dragon style. They're mine, _Yang thought blankly, _is she… copying me!?_

The blonde's pride would not allow her to back down. She had trained for many years to get where she was right now, and this monster dared imitate them after just a few exchanges in combat? "You damned monster – Don't you dare mock me!" Yang launched herself at Penny like a wild animal and attacked more ferociously than ever before. At first it was easy. An imitation without thought was just as imitation, and Penny's copied guard was so obviously telegraphed that even a child could've punctured it.

The blonde would jab out lightly at the face to bait a cautious Penny into a full guard, and then she would step right in and easily sink a heavy punch into the automaton's stomach. The girl would then try to strike back – but Yang had already maneuvered sideways and brought down a merciless elbow to strike at the back of her head. Once Yang got herself the higher ground the fight turned into a one way street where Yang threw hit after hit like an unrelenting thunderstorm, and Penny backing step by step under each heavy blow until she rattled uncontrollably like a shaken leaf. Even an Aura-infused machine could only take so much punishment before bending under the sheer weight of her attack.

But the impossible had happened again. A sudden straight punch to the chest broke the momentum of her swing, and when she tried to counter with a kick she found the leg caught firmly underneath Penny's arm before her whole world flew sideways into an explosive, sickening crunch against the wall. The blonde groaned weakly as she staggered to her feet, but a swift shadow prompted her to raise her hands just in time to block a swift kick that had her rattling from the impact. She tried to move in for a spinning counter, but to her surprise her right leg suddenly gave out as she switched to a desperate cross guard, and was immediately blasted all the way down the stairs by a punch no less weak than the one that damn near killed her before. With immense difficulty, Yang pushed herself up from the man-sized hole she carved onto the ground and looked up towards the smiling, obviously excited Penny. The tendrils of despair choked her.

_I lost. I lost a melee._

The temporary blank in her mind proved costly as the blades once again fired towards her in a rainfall pattern, no longer hindered by the close range Yang had initially forced upon Penny. Jolting into action Yang did her best to escape or beat away at the rain of projectiles, but it wasn't enough. Too many slipped past her defenses to graze through her flesh. Too many forced her into maneuvers so awkward that she wasn't much better off than if she beat herself up.

As one blade zoomed straight for her right, Yang tried to swerve aside too late as it pierced right through her right arm and eliciting an equally piercing scream. It felt as if a grenade had exploded inside her! If she had any lingering desire to reclaim her lost pride before they had all but evaporated by this single misstep. Yang thought faster than ever before as she plucked out the lodged blade mid-run and threw it away with vengeance. As much as it pained her to say it, getting up close and personal was no longer an option. In that case, what she needed to do was…

"EAT THIS!"

Yang fired out a single shot through the storm of blades, its trajectory perfect but utterly uninspiring as Penny watched without even lifting a hand. But just as it was about to hit, the fireball suddenly curved downwards to hit the ground just in front of Penny's toes, and the whole world detonated. This was the first time Yang tried this in her current form; coating a layer of her Semblance onto the shell in an attempt to amplify its destructive power. The results was beyond both their expectations as the whole section of the staircase broke off and crumbled in the sea of flames, taking a shocked Penny with them would've taken Yang as well if she hadn't took off the moment she fired the shell. _Well, I shouldn't complain about good luck._

Not wasting a second, Yang tossed away her right gauntlet – now a dead weight due to the fearsome cracks littered across its surface – and ran at the top of her speed. A scream rang out from the bottom in an unearthly howl,

"You are not getting away, Yang!"

Penny had recovered faster than she expected, and her range seemed near infinite in this world. A swarm of swords circled towards her front to block her path while another group threatened from the back, but Yang was fearless. As the projectiles closed in she knocked a few off course with some precise shots, revealing a tiny opening which Yang squeezed through with an upwards roll against gravity. A quick glance towards her back mid-roll allowed her to shift herself just a fraction thinner to squeeze through the holes of the web of swords, and miraculously she survived without even a scratch on her body. Yang thought she understood what was happening to her. In the face of life-or-death crisis she had finally entered the zone, the _Wu Wo, _the state of the mind where every sense felt razor sharp, and her body moving exactly how she wanted it to be. It had happened only once in her life, and there was no better time than now for it to happen again. With this focus, dodging a few swords was mere child's play. With this power, breaking through Penny was no longer just a pipe dream.

Penny noticed her state as the attacking blades turned suddenly frantic, but it only opened up to more mistakes as Yang outmaneuvered her opponent again and again. Soon, she was passing through the swords as if they weren't even there. The blonde stared straight ahead to find the end of a long journey just a few meters ahead of her. Just a little more, and she would be away from this world. Just a little more, and she would be free. Surely nothing could stop her now –

"Huh?"

She was falling. The sensation was almost too familiar. Yang narrowly avoided stubbing her chin when she hit the ground with an 'oomph' and looked down to see the problem. Her eyes widened at the sight of a short sword embedded deep inside her leg; a taut string pulling her down and extending all the way towards the edge. _When? How? _Still, she kept her cool as she grabbed at the hilt of the sword and pulled. It was just a minor setback, and with her self-regeneration she wasn't worried about crippling herself for long. However, Yang's face turned ashen white when she realized with a start that the blade wasn't budging. She even wiggled it left and right like a joypad, but the thing was lodged so tight it might as well have been welded into her own leg! But worst of all was that after all the commotion she didn't feel the slightest pain from her wound. It was obviously unnatural. _What the hell did she do to my leg?_

Before the blonde could gather herself for another try, a tremendous force abruptly yanked her right out of her thoughts and flung her upwards across the air, nearly dislocating her hip and eliciting a surprised yelp from the brawler. Immediately Yang recognized the danger and reached out desperately for anything she could hold on to, to no avail. At the last moment she fired Ember Celica three times in rapid succession to push herself closer towards the ground before extending her fingers towards the rapidly approaching fence, and the closer she got the more it seemed like she was just a few centimeters off target. But she caught it. Two fingers hooked onto the steel tip of a fence like vulture's claws, and as the momentum slanted her towards the ground Yang immediately readjusted her grip into two fistfuls of friction just in time to brace herself against the bone jarring force from below. Gasping like a fish, Yang tried to steady her wild heartbeat as a voice rang from the below,

"I see that you're stubborn to the end, but there is no use. Your leg is mine. Soon, the rest of you will be mine as well."

"Bull-_shit!_" The second half of her curse came out high-pitched and odd, because Penny chose that exact moment to resume her pull. And it wasn't just at the level that her joints might pop off – the damn girl was literally trying to tear her leg apart! Yang held on as best she could from her position – even accepting some risks to fire off a few shots at the offending thread, though the result was disheartening – but sure enough, her knee joint first popped out of its socket, and her hips followed swiftly after. The pain was unholy; and the fear even worse as she fought down tears at the sensation of her thigh slowly tearing apart. Still, she did not give in. _It doesn't matter if she tears my leg off, _she thought grimly with bloody determination, _I can get it back with this power. In fact, I may as well cut off my leg now and end this misery –_

"Oh, Yang. I don't know many people, but I doubt I'll find someone like you even if I add another hundred years to my age. I offer you my greatest respect. But really, why are you still resisting? Have you not realized it yet, or are you too distracted to notice?"

"I – will – _never _–"

"Fight all you want. I won't stop you. After all, without your strange power, what can you possibly do against me? _Hik!_"

_What? What did she just say? _It was as if a bucket of cold, icy water had poured over her head, and the distraction caused her slip a few centimeters at once. _No! She's lying! I'm still here, aren't I? If this power is gone then there's no way I can hold on! I must not listen –_

"That's right. You power is gone already, _hik, _and the only thing that's keeping you afloat is that stubborn will of yours. Don't believe me? Then pull yourself loose. The cable is already nearing its breaking point, _Hik! _If you put in just a bit more effort then surely it will break. _Hik! _Go on. Try it."

Yang rose to the taunt and felt herself awash with white hot rage, "Oh yeah? Let's see if you can keep that smug look on when I get out of – this – _thing!_"

She pulled upwards with every ounce of energy she could muster, even as the pain threatened to overwhelm the terrible anger she channeled to fight against it. Her torso lifted up a little at the all-out attempt; the thread that chained her stretched just a little thinner that it really seemed like it would break anytime. But it held firm. It did not fall apart. Yang's heart plummeted even as Penny's devilish voice slithered once again into her ears,

"Impressive hysterical strength. But in the end, it is just hysterical strength. _Hik! _This is your limit, Yang. This is as far as you go."

And she fell. The blonde was puzzled, because she could not recall letting go even towards the final moment. But then she saw the flashing gleam of something silver, followed by a couple of thin, meaty, wet bits splattering softly on her cheeks. Somehow, she recognized them for what they were: ten little fingers, cut perfectly at their base as they scattered against the wind. _No. _She stretched out. Reached, but could not hold as they slipped bloodily through her butchered hands. She screamed. She screamed.

She –

* * *

A crack.

It was instinctive. More reaction than action. For the longest of time, she didn't even notice her eyes were open until a voice echoed from behind,

"Oh! You're awake! How are you feeling? Is everything okay?"

She awoke, but just barely. Except her sight every one of her senses were a monotony of silence, as if the world surrounding her had either dulled or died.

"Strange. Her brain waves indicate activity, but she isn't responding at all. Is it the shock? Or maybe it resurrected the body, but took a toll on her soul… oh, never mind. I'll talk to you as if you're awake, alright Yang?"

Yang. A name. Her name. It was a spark that kindled a part of her mind, but that was all. It did not excite her, it did not move her. There was no sudden enlightening or miracle that filled the world with light. It was just an identity, and at the moment she couldn't care less about it.

"So first things first, I'm sorry. I lied to you. It was necessary to make you lose control of the strange power, and even after your magnificent display I still underestimated its tenacity and didn't manage to transform your body to ensure your survival. I almost killed you… I'm sorry. That should not have happened."

An apology. Under normal circumstances, Yang might've felt something from those words. But except for that slight prick in her consciousness she couldn't feel anything else, and thus she did not care. In fact she found the tall object that loomed over her periphery; a black, ugly thing which tip obscured by a rolling mass of thick, brownish clouds a lot more attractive. For some reason, she felt a strange need to comprehend the scenery. She squinted to see if it would improve the vision.

"Still, where on Remnant did you contract this power? It is too powerful, too dangerous. Did you know that you splattered into a gory mess right here, and that power of yours actually revived you from _that? _It should've been impossible. Even if it was fully fused with your soul, if you aren't compatible with the power in the first place, or if your sense of self isn't strong enough, or if it rebuilt your body with even a string of DNA pattern off… this is a true miracle. It will most likely not happen twice. It is therefore in everyone's best interest that you're permanently insured against another such incident."

Her skin prickled. It would seem that she had finally awaken to touch, but it was hardly a comfortable sensation. Not unlike being bitten by a thousand ants, the strange feeling first spread from her toe, then up her ankle, crawling slowly over the knees before assaulting her thigh almost immediately. And all the while, the voice talked with obvious excitement,

"You were surprised by this blade's existence. If you would remember, this is the blade from the time when you and Ruby first ran away. It has been lodged inside there all this time. I am not sure why you've forgotten about it, and originally I left it there as a somewhat poor trap to use against Ruby, but in the end it turned out to be of great convenience. I will _transform _you, Yang Xiao Long. At first I only meant to seal away your strange power, but I know now with certainty that _this _is what I've waited for my entire life. This is the moment I've _lived_ for my entire life."

Yang realized that this was important to the voice; instinctively knew that she didn't have much time left and sought to think harder, and yet for the life of her she still couldn't understand why she was so bothered by the scene before her eyes. _Bothered. Yes. Anxious. But why? What's so wrong about a black tower and brown sky? Just –_

_Just what is _not _wrong about being trapped in this stifling, dead world forever?_

"– _Ack_."

"Hmm? Oh, I'm sorry, does it hurt? I can't help with the pain; it is a reaction all biological organism has to endure in order to become _automata. _Fortunately, it seems the pain is lessened because you haven't fully connected with your body, and your spirit is strong unlike those failed subjects I tried to transform in the past. I am certain you will live through it. We will finally be equal, Yang! We will finally be –"

The voice stopped. Penny's smile did not waver even when Yang seized her by the collar and pulled her close, dragging her voice like a baby who had just started to speak, "Pee_ee – Peennn - _nnnyyy_."_

"What is it, Yang?"

"_Stoooooppppp." _She remembered. She finally remembered. But as usual, she was again one step too late.

"I don't want to. Yes, I rather like this method of answering much more. I _refuse_, Yang. I want to do this _my _way."

"_Whhhhyyyyyyyyy –_"

"I told you, don't I? I've been alone for such a very long time. Every day my father's memory wails against my control unit, and it is _such _an effort to not tear down this little prison _right now_ and fulfill his last wish," the automaton shuddered, and Yang gasped at the pain that spread increasingly fast over her body, "But still I tried whatever I can in this confined space. There are always curious people, and after all the enemies I've eliminated, failures culled, untouchables quarantined far, far away with empty promises and Ruby escaped… my friend, you are finally here. Despite your animosity, I will learn you. Know you. Love you. And when you have finally come to terms with your new body, we will have all the time in the world to understand each other."

It was useless. The girl was in a self-deluded world, and what's absolutely terrifying was that she have the power to make it a reality. Yang glanced up towards the sky, or rather the absence of one and laughed brokenly in her mind. Of course – if she could open a door, then why not close it? Still not wanting to give up Yang began struggling with all her might, but already she couldn't feel the lower half of her body. The god forsaken pain just kept growing stronger and stronger, ripping her apart so they could rebuild her into something utterly inhuman. She tried awakening her Semblance; her one last resistance left born of the human soul.

There was no response.

"Sweet dreams, Yang. The next time you wake up, we'll have a lot to talk about."

She felt a pair of hands grasping gently at her neck, and suddenly she found herself unable to move her upper body. No, she couldn't even _scream. _Her breathing hitched a new height as the pain began to stretch from there as well and no matter how much she tried, no matter how desperately she struggled, It was all useless. It was all futile. _Why!? _She screamed inside her own mind, _Why?_

But of course it was. After all, didn't she give in to her own weakness and threw away everything she lived for? She thought about Ren and Nora, about how she casted them away for the sake of indulging in a bit of playfulness. She remembered Lily, gone forever, and yet still scorned and despised and hated for a treachery she never truly committed. And then there was Ruby. She Ruby was the redemption she needed to build a fresh start, and through her she would make damn sure that this friendship at least would not falter like all the others she had had before.

How laughable. Her patience barely lasted two weeks, and one betrayal later her faith fell apart as easily as would the wind blow upon a house of cards. Worse, she betrayed her own efforts like a child would destroy their poor sandcastle, and then stepped all over the good will that was extended to her crying bloody justice and freedom. She _tried to take a person's life_. Freedom? What kind of jot a freedom born of sinning and death could possibly bring? She thought she knew better. She obviously didn't. Even if Penny was twisted, she was no reflection of her own choices, so what did her actions indicate? What did it truly say about the person named Yang Xiao Long?

It said that she was a lie. It said that she did not uphold the principles she thought she believed in. It said that the moment her mask was discarded she was no better than the monster she condemned Penny to be. _Hahaha. _Penny wanted friendship, did she? She's afraid that the girl was going to be very disappointed when her shiny new puppet pops out of her cocoon, all false, useless and hollow.

… She deserved to die.

* * *

**(Day XX, Current Time, 6.00 a.m.)**

"… Aaand, pass."

The day was cool, the morning wind soothing, the sun just peeking through the mountain folds ready to climb the skies yet another day. It was calm. Refreshing.

Cold.

Were her companions even the tiniest bit sociable, this would be the perfect timing to cut in a polite, 'yes?' and dissolve the atmosphere into a chatter of awkward laughter. As it stands, the silence only grew worse as the blonde sighed and repeated with greater clarity,

"Ruby. It's your turn now to talk."

"Wait a second," Blake interjected suddenly before Ruby could raise a voice, "Your story isn't finished yet. What happens next?"

"But it is. I was changed, and then I was gone. A dead person can't possibly speak for herself, right?"

Yang replied as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Not making sense one bit of her words Blake looked like she was about to give in to sarcasm, but hesitated when she saw the full seriousness etched upon Yang's face. Even stranger was the fact that Ruby had turned away completely with her back facing the duo, pretending as if she hadn't heard the conversation at all.

But of course she did. She just didn't want to have anything to do with it.

"You said I only had to talk about the beginning." Ruby muttered finally after a few minutes, her body language exhibiting such strong waves of reluctance one could practically feel them on their skin.

"Sure that was our promise, but I never said that is all you have to do," Yang answered lightly while swaying an index finger, "I'm sure you noticed, but my memories at that time are… wonky at best. I really am not the best person to talk about it."

"Then _don't_," Ruby said in a sudden, forceful tone, "It's painful, isn't it? So let us not talk about these things and just focus on the present. We have a road to run; who cares if the nosy b… woman over there wants to know?"

For once, despite the obvious disdain in Blake's eyes the woman did not argue, but simply bowed her head towards Yang while apologizing, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't pry. That was insensitive of me."

But Yang wasn't looking. She was staring at Ruby with a deep frown on her face, and with a tight jaw she walked right up Ruby's side before slapped a hand down hard onto the petite girl's shoulder. Her body shook from the tremendous force, but Ruby didn't try to pull away.

"Are you serious? Do you think I bring this up just for the hell of it? We got over this. We had our closure. So no matter how terrible our mistakes are, no matter how bad it'd gotten, _they are all in the past now. _So why the hell are you acting up for when _you're _the one who lectured me all about crybabying on the plains? Of course it's not going to be easy, but do you think running away is going to make it easier? What if it happens again? You gonna skip town or hide in a hole somewhere? _Huh?"_

By the time she'd finally run out of breath, Yang realized that she was sweating profusely. Her breathing was heavy as if she'd just fought a battle, and her grip on Ruby's shoulder was so strong she was surprised she hadn't broken a bone yet. She quickly loosened her grip; various feelings of embarrassment and self-loathing building rapidly at her uncontrollable outburst_. Guess I'm not as ready as I pretend to be._

"Sorry," Yang flicked the sole strand of hair cropping out of the top of her head as she awkwardly tried to sputter out a good sentence, "I don't mean – I mean – well in short whatever happened happened, and there's nothing we can to do to change it. We won't ever relive them again anyway so… it doesn't hurt to talk about it."

Yang held a fist, watched her skin fading into pale white before letting go, "Maybe we'll never overcome it. Maybe it'll actually be the best if we forget the bad memories. But I just want you to know that… it _won't_ actually hurt to talk about it."

And that was all she wanted to say. Neither Ruby nor Blake said anything for a time, and after a few minutes of awkward silence Blake walked towards her belongings and began tidy things up slowly, all the while holding a strange expression that no one could decipher. Meanwhile Ruby seemed to have lost all touch with reality as she sat as still as a statue, and the only way to check if she was even breathing was to feel the air up her nose. Not that Yang had the guts to try it unless she harbored a death wish. She could only wait. And against her expectations the wait would last quite a long time; well past their usual departure time by at least an hour.

"Alright."

"Eh?"

A red blur zipped past her eyes from the stiff tree trunk she's leaning on, and when Yang finally awoke from dream land Ruby had already carried a bag on her shoulders. It was an odd behavior, because Ruby _never _bothered to carry her own luggage since she had Yang to dump all the load on. Suddenly, out of nowhere Blake appeared beside Ruby to stab casually at the young girl's neck, to which the younger girl simply stood and watched as the blade sailing harmlessly across her skin. The golden-eyed woman narrowed her eyes and nodded once – another first time for the day, since Yang had never seen her acknowledge Ruby properly – before walking back into the shadows and disappeared. Something obviously passed between the two – if not all of them – but she would have to be Sherlock to fathom exactly what the hell was going on. Seriously, did her companions simultaneously blew a fuse in their heads or something?

"What are you waiting for? We're going."

Ruby Rose looked straight at her with those clear, silver eyes of hers, and for some reason it made her feel nostalgic. Knowing Ruby's attitude, Yang frantically packed her tuff like a tornado – the messy carnage reminding her depressingly that she hadn't slept a wink last night – and chased after the already departed Ruby's back. Back then this attitude was one of the many small annoyances that eventually caused a huge rift between them, but now, it was just a quirk she got used to. Just as Yang was about to reach the girl however, she heard Ruby speaking,

"I won't talk about it now."

It took Yang a few seconds to realize that she was referring to the request. At this point she was already regretting her rash move, so waved her hands and said,

"Eh, it's fine. It was a weird request anyway; I have no idea what I was thinking so there's no need to –"

"We must make haste to the Siberia Mountain and make up for lost time, so there will be no breaks today and lunch'll be on the road. If we can get there before nightfall, there's a cave I know we can rest safely without watch for approximately four hours. If by then you still want to hear my side of the story then… I'll talk."

"…Oh." Before she knew it she had slowed to a full stop and was staring at her friend's shrinking back with a wide open mouth. It took a slap to her own face to finally jolt herself back to reality. _"Oh." _Yang began walking at a brisk pace after Ruby, but that soon turned into a full run which she could not and did not intend to stop. Naturally Ruby sensed her intent and quickened her own pace, but today Yang did not feel like she would lose this race, _"Ohhhhhhh, _that sounds _fantastic _Ruby! You may be a chump sometimes, but you always come to at the last moment – why are you running? Come back here! All I want to do is give you a hug!"

"That is _exactly _what I don't want you to do! Stand back or I'll shoot you in the face!"

"Oh yeah? You think a few bullets is enough to stop me from rubbing my face all over your cheek? _You're naïve, Ruby Rose! Haaah!"_

The blonde instantly burned up in a ball of flames, and unless Ruby decides to use big caliber bullets there literally was nothing she could do to stop her at range. Worse was that Yang's stamina was much improved since the android disaster, so whether Ruby could still outlast her in the stamina department was an actual question. Naturally the red-haired girl didn't take to the threat well as she rolled her eyes and pulled out her sniper rifle, but in the end she thought the better of it and put it away with a sigh. She slowed down. Yang brightened at the sign of consent and pumped her feet until she was just a few feet away from the girl, and –

**KABOOM!**

The Huntress fell towards the ground in a measured crouch, battle instinct taking over instantly as she surveyed Ruby doing the same before vanishing away into a puff of rose petals. Quickly diving behind the nearest heap of rocks, Yang waited patiently for a signal from either Ruby or Blake, knowing that until the threat had revealed themselves it was best for her to keep hidden and act as a focal between the two. Still, after a few more explosions and constant noise of clashing metal ringing from inside the forest, Yang couldn't help but feel anxious. _There shouldn't be any enemies in the area that could put a dent on Ruby or Blake. What's taking them so long?_

Then she felt it. "Yang! Get back!" Blake screamed from an unknown distance, but Yang instinctively knew that it was too late to make the passive choice. Raising a fiery wall with one hand and firing out an explosive shell with the other, Yang saw just in time something invisible slamming into her flames before _evaporating _into nothingness, then a muddy white figure flashing over her shot before zipping around the back like lightning. _Fast! _Yang thought to herself as she swerved around to parry a series of jabs executed through an intricate-looking, silvery white rapier; executed so swift and deadly that she couldn't even spare time to see her attacker's face. _Fast, but you're nowhere close to Ruby or Blake! _

As a slash knocked one arm out of the way, Yang saw clearly in her mind's eyes that the next blow would be a fatal stab towards the center of her throat. With near supernatural speed Yang moved forwards to meet the attacker, neatly sidestepping the death blow by millimeters before grabbing the attacker's slim shoulders – _a woman! _– And pushed her downwards to meet her knee. But two small, white glyphs suddenly appeared around her wrists, and somehow she felt her hands became cuffed in air as the strange fencer immediately wrenched free from her hold while bringing her rapier upwards to slash across Yang's center.

In the past she would've been struck down by the blow, but now Yang was fast enough to improvise with a sharp, pinpoint kick at the attacker's wrist, disarming her just as the rapier ripped through the bottom part of her jacket. The weapon clattered harmlessly onto the ground, and Yang kicked out once again to stop the woman from grabbing it again, but unfortunately her legwork wasn't nearly as good as her fists as the white fencer easily ducked out of the way and lunged.

It would seem that the fight would reset again with Yang put at a severe disadvantage, but Blake was finally there. A tendril sneaked the rapier just a few inches forward causing the white clad woman to miss, and with her eyes set entirely on the weapon she never saw the vicious foot that crushed right into her face and sent her flying all the way across the grass, only to be pulled back by a ribbon at the ankle before being flung hard against a tree like a rag doll. Yang couldn't quite help a cringe as the poor attacker slid to the ground, unconscious and bloodied all over the face as she said,

"Blake, I owe you one. Now let's go get Ruby and – hey! What are you doing?"

Body rigid and jaw firm, Blake stood over the unconscious woman with her _katana _pressed firmly against her victim's neck. Yang was surprised to see this, because even from the little she learned of Blake's past, she thought the woman to be someone who despised the thought of taking a life. Slowly the black-haired woman said,

"We have to kill her."

"What!? Why? Sure she attacked us, but you already taught her a lesson she'll never forget. C'mon, let's get away already."

"You don't understand," Blake said with golden eyes flashing dangerously, "I know her. She saw my face. If we don't silence her now we'll soon have an entire kingdom hunting for our heads."

Yang looked perplexed for a moment before she guffawed loudly, "What, is your nemesis royalty or something? And even if she is she can't possibly go against the Common Law… and…"

For the first time the blonde got a clear look of her assailant's appearance, and even as a woman Yang had to say that she was astoundingly beautiful. The woman wore a pale blue exterior, flip side red bolero jacket over a similarly colored thigh-length dress, accentuated by an apple-shaped necklace and a pair of thin, rectangular earrings. Her skin looked smooth as silk and soft to touch, and hair was an extremely rare bright white that seemed to glow with mysterious radiance; a far cry from the decaying rags one would normally find on an elder. Even with a bloodied nose and tattered clothing the woman looked like an angel who had descended from the skies. But the most striking part the woman was not her looks, but that single tiara crowning the top of her head – five spikes in a circle forged in greyish metal, with each tip embedded with a shining stone that could easily be mistaken as diamonds. And they are. Yang recognized it as the crown of one of the most famous independent Kingdoms in the world, one that even the arrogant Atlas or wild Vacuo or corrupted Vytal had to respect. It is a literal royal crown they were seeing.

They are in the presence of the High Queen of Shiva Kingdom, Weiss Schnee.

"What. What. What. Why. How. Where. _What the f –_"

"This will be quick." Blake twisted her wrist to slide the blade across the queen's neck, but Yang bumped into her immediately with a shrill scream,

"_Noooo! _What are you doing!? She's a queen; _the_ High Queen of Shiva! Do you have a death wish or something?!"

"Not now. Which I why I'm going to _silence _her," Blake growled discontentedly as she attempted to free herself from Yang's grip, "It is common knowledge that the High Queen is a merciless law abider who will not hesitate to prosecute any outlaws or criminals that stray into her territory. We are at a grey zone between Shiva and Atlas, and that means we're under her jurisdiction. Never in a million years did I think she'd come out of her palace, but… there is no compromise; it is our lives or hers."

"But there's no reason for her to suspect us anything!We're not criminals – well, okay, maybe we're kinda a bit on the grey area, but she doesn't even know any of us! I've only ever seen her on broadcasts, Ruby avoids the living person like the devil, and you are… wait a second. What did you say earlier? About you knowing her and she seeing your face?"

"… A few years ago, before I settled down at Bamborsa," the girl said pointedly with shifty eyes, "I worked on many… jobs, across many places for a living. The Shiva royal palace happened to be one of the targets."

Yang could hardly keep her jaw closed as she asked incredulously, "I'm sorry, this is a little too much to wrap around my head but – is this a theft I'm hearing here? Or are you implying that you _attacked _the Schnee royalty? Did you –"

"No!" Blake corrected her immediately, "I mean yes to the theft, and _kind of _yes about the attack, but it was in _self defense _to protect myself_ from _her. Anyway, it was supposed to be just a simple operation. We had the guards' route all planned out and no one was even supposed to know we're there, but somehow… we ran into her. Things got complicated."

The finality of Blake's tone on the subject did nothing to sooth the beginnings of a headache rising at the back of Yang's head, "Attempted robbery of a royal palace. The Schnee family's no less. A retrieval or snatch-and-grab? Doesn't matter, you obviously have a rogue group supporting you, so it was a mission. The only question left would be whether you're mercenary or terrorist - Oh, don't look at me like that, when you're the daughter of a crime lord there's very little you can't guess. Anyway, I'm not going to pry, but my word's the same: we are not going to kill her."

"But _why, _Yang?" the woman yelled out in frustration, "She's a _threat! _She _will _hurt us! Is this a compulsion of yours? Is that why you won't let me die? I thought you know this better than anyone, and yet why do you still help people even though they'll just destroy you in the end?"

"You –"

_PRAAAKKKRASHHHH! _A loud crash suddenly threatened from the row of trees to their side, and the duo leaped instantly out of the way just before the columns of splintered root and soil would smash into them. With the high queen locked beneath her armpit the blonde yelled out in annoyance, "For Remnant's sake, what the hell is going on!?"

"Oh, it's just a little scuffle between me and my old rival! How are you doing, friend Yang?"

Her entire being stopped. Feeling stiff as ice, Yang rotated her head difficultly to stare the center of the carnage from moments ago, and there she found a familiar orange head, green clad figure she thought she'd never see again in her entire life. Her smile was like a knife right through her heart. A rustle to the right caused everyone to turn around, and from the ravaged foliage emerged Ruby Rose with a fully unleashed war scythe and looks sharp enough to kill on sight. The moment she saw Yang though, her entire posture crumbled as a bolt of panic ran across her eyes,

"_Shit, _Yang, are you o –"

The blonde held up a hand and cut off the young girl. Looking surprisingly unperturbed, she turned back towards the figure and addressed the number one person she never ever _ever _want to meet again in her life,

_"Penny."_

"Yang."

"How have you been?"

"Better than ever before! Who knew that breaking away from my core logic to realize an illogical desire can be so fulfilling? Wait, give me a second to hack this _wonderful _global network so I can find the perfect word to describe my feelings; there you go – _fuck _yes!"

"Right. And I've been better. I suppose you're not here to kill us?"

"Of course not. After weighing all the options, I've decided you're a specimen so interesting that it's worth leaving my world behind to conduct a close-ranged, in-depth analysis of you in your natural habitat for an indefinite period of time! Isn't that great?"

"Right. Ruby. Can you come over please?"

She wiggled her right hand and signaled Ruby to come over. Glancing repeatedly between Yang and her assailant, the girl hesitantly obeyed as she flashed over in a trail of petals. Yang then passed the limp body in her arm and said,

"This is her Royal Highness Weiss Schnee. You know, the Queen of Shiva? Now I know we'll probably die a horrible execution when she wakes up later since we beat the crap out of her, but I do _really _like her singing and don't quite want her to die before I can get her autograph. So keep her safe, and Blake!"

She pointed up a random tree, and a certain hidden shadow suddenly shivered at the surprise of being spotted, "Don't kill her. You're officially dead anyway so if you keep yourself hidden we can maybe explain you off as her hallucination or something. Probably. Let's hope you kicked some memory out of her brain, but anyway don't hurt her until we get a handle on what's going on! Don't you find it weird that the queen is out in the woods alone?"

Finished addressing, the blonde sighed loudly and drooped her head as if deep in thought. Perturbed by her strange behavior, Ruby hesitantly asked,

"Yang…?"

"Is that everything? Did I miss anything important, Ruby?"

"I don't think so…?"

"Oh. Awesome," Her voice grew fainter, and suddenly Yang swayed on her feet. Ruby did not catch her in time due to the dead weight in her arms, and the blonde plopped heavily onto the ground with a final murmur on her lips,

"Because you know, I think I'm gonna faint."

She fainted.


End file.
